NFA memo requires affiliation with AFP

Karapatan received disturbing reports from the Confederation for Unity, Recognition, and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE) on a memorandum from the National Food Authority's Human Resource Management in relation to the agency's application for "affiliation" with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

The said memorandum, dated January 18, 2018 and signed by Department Manager III Atty. Anna Karina Coronel, required officials and employees of the NFA to submit accomplished information sheets to the HR Department. The said form, stated as 200-054 form from the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, obliged employees to divulge personal information such as personal background, work history, location of residence, organizational affiliations, sketch of location of residences, places of residences since birth, foreign countries visited, among others. The accomplished forms were to be submitted to the HR department on January 31, 2018.

The form is, in essence, conscription to military service, either as part of the military's reserve force or its auxiliary. This takes militarization of the civilian bureaucracy to a whole new level. We do not know what Duterte and his cohorts in the military and Cabinet are up to, but this suspicious move merits proper investigation. If this is forced conscription of government employees, imposed and especially without due consent, the people behind this memo should be held accountable.

Karapatan sounds the alarm on the memo, warning this could be happening in other agencies as well. The effect of such a scheme is chilling, especially for a government that is already threatening a crackdown on legitimate organizations and its citizens. Turning entire agencies and government institutions into intelligence networks would have an inevitable, adverse effect to people's freedom of assembly and their right to organize. There is a need to map out where else this is happening, as well as to investigate the motive behind this.

In the context of continued political persecution, killings, illegal arrests and harassment among the ranks of activists, members of progressive organizations, human rights defenders and civilians, such a memorandum raises many red flags. If this is indeed another maneuver to constrict spaces for people to express criticism and dissent, then this is another glaring indication of the Duterte regime's contempt for the exercise of the people's basic right to freedom of expression, association and assembly, among other civil and political rights.

Cristina Palabay

Secretary General Karapatan