CODE-NGO upholds its mandate to influence public policy through protecting civic spaces andensuring participation in democratic process in the country.

At the start of 2021, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) released a Memorandum Circular (MC 2021-12) with a controversial provision requiring civil society organizations (CSOs) to acquire clearance from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) before participating in local governance activities.

CODE-NGO led a consultation among concerned CSOs to discuss the implications of the provisions in the MC. Together with the Advocacy Working Group (AWG) on Participatory Local Governance (PLG), CODE-NGO and supporting CSOs issued a statement conveying sentiments and questions on the MC. The DILG through the Bureau of Local Government Supervision (BLGS) CSO Partnership Unit invited CSOs to consultations on the MC. CODE-NGO and its members participated in the consultations. The MC 12 was amended by virtue of MC 2021-54.

CSOs pointed out to concerned stakeholders that good local governance and genuine people’s participation are key ingredients in community development and upliftment of lives in the local government units (LGUs). These will not happen if civic spaces are restricted through polices like the MC 12 and the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2021 (ATA).

The ATA was signed into law in the latter half of 2020. CODE-NGO, together with the Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI), DRR Net Philippines, Caritas Philippines and 36 other organizations filed a petition to the Supreme Court (SC) questioning the constitutionality of the law. The SC conducted their oral arguments online from February through June 2021. The petitioner’s main contention involves the designation or identification of terrorists and the explicit inclusion of “advocacy, protest, dissent, stoppage of work, industrial or mass action, and other similar exercises of civil and political rights” in the law as possible acts of terrorism.

The law comes into implementation in the context of extra-judicial killings (EJKs) in the war on drugs, political killings of journalists, lawyers, and activists, and systematic red-tagging by the state. The law and context of peace and human rights creates barriers for meaningful participation in civic space – CSOs will not speak out because of fear for their reputation or their lives. CODE-NGO was represented by Maderazo, Valerio and Partners during the oral arguments in the SC.

In December, 2021 the SC announced its decision on the ATA. Portions of the law were declared unconstitutional. The SC ruled that “advocacy, protest, dissent, stoppage of work, industrial or mass action, and other similar exercises of civil and political rights” are not acts of terrorism. It further ruled that the requests for designation of terrorists by other jurisdictions to the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) is unconstitutional.

While these are small victories, the structures provided by the law such as the ATC remains. CODE-NGO’s lawyers recommend CSOs should discuss information on the ATA and its operationalization among themselves and especially with their partner communities.

This article is part of the CODE-NGO Annual Report 2021.