Bangkok, January 30, 2025—Philippine authorities must drop the terrorism financing charges pending against journalist Deo Montesclaros and stop using legal threats to intimidate the media, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.
On January 10, the northern Cagayan Provincial Prosecutor’s Office sent Montesclaros a legal notice alleging that he provided supplies to the banned New People’s Army insurgent group in 2018 and gave him 10 days to respond, according to news reports and CPJ’s communication with the journalist.
Montesclaros, a freelance reporter with the local Pinoy Weekly and a regular contributor to German photo agencies IMAGO Images and Alto Press, told CPJ that the legal threat aimed to stifle his reporting on local issues and that he was preparing a counter affidavit to refute the prosecutor’s allegations.
Maximum penalties under the Philippines’ Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 include life imprisonment.
“Philippine authorities should cease their legal intimidation of journalist Deo Montesclaros and stop using terrorism allegations to silence critical news reporting,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “If President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s administration wants to be taken seriously as a democracy, this type of lawfare against the media must stop.”
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, an advocacy group, said in a statement that Montesclaros was the second journalist to be charged under the terrorism financing law. The other, Frenchie Mae Cumpio, has been in detention for almost five years on an illegal arms possession charge that has since been expanded to include terrorism financing.
Community journalists in the Philippines are often publicly accused of association with banned communist insurgents, a label known as “red-tagging” that makes them vulnerable to official harassment and reprisals. Montesclaros told CPJ he was first red-tagged in 2020 over his coverage of the government’s response to a COVID-19 outbreak.
The Cagayan Provincial Prosecutor’s Office and police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group did not immediately reply to CPJ’s emailed requests for comment.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
Committee to Protect Journalists | Radio Free (2025-01-30T14:41:56+00:00) Philippine journalist Deo Montesclaros charged with financing terrorism. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2025/01/30/philippine-journalist-deo-montesclaros-charged-with-financing-terrorism/
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