Foreign aid being siphoned off by leftist groups

The military has said huge foreign funds for Philippine Government's social programmes unwittingly go to leftist non-government organisations.

"With this, the Communist Party of the Philippines [CPP] is able to funnel local and international funds into legal programmes that serve as front organisations of the CPP-NPA [New people's Army]," said a paper titled Knowing the Enemy.

The report was prepared by the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The CPP has formed cooperatives which take advantage of government development programmes for agrarian reforms, forest management, mining, women's health and poverty reduction, the paper said.

These projects are implemented in affected areas that are controlled by the CPP-NPA, which are now popularly called "red zones".

For example, the government's principal anti-poverty programmes in rural areas are undertaken in many red zones, the paper said .

Another project, based on the Community Based Forest Agreements and Integrated Forestry Management Agreements, are implemented in 6,000 community-based forest management project, which are also in the red zones.

The government's agrarian reform programmes are undertaken in communities which have clusters of cooperative farms.

They are the beneficiaries of the government's farmland redistribution programme.

Various departments which undertake government projects hire non-government organisations that train the beneficiaries of the projects and monitor the implementation of the projects.

The CPP has infiltrated non-government organisations that were contracted to manage these projects, said the paper.

"Once the funds are released to the beneficiaries, the government loses oversight powers on the funds," said the paper.

"The government has somehow fallen into the trap of facilitating development assistance programmes that require no accountability from the beneficiaries [of the programme]."

Because of this, the Philippine Government has also realised how its own social development programmes have been "corrupted by the rebels", said the paper.