HomeNewsPhilippine authorities order freeze of Protestant group’s bank accounts

Philippine authorities order freeze of Protestant group’s bank accounts

In a resolution dated March 12, the Anti-Money Laundering Council issued a freeze order on the assets of UCCP HARAN in Davao City

Philippine authorities have suspended the bank accounts of a Protestant group that provides sanctuary to displaced indigenous people in the southern region of Mindanao.

In a resolution dated March 12, the Anti-Money Laundering Council issued a freeze order on the assets of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines’ HARAN Center in Davao City.

The order covers three bank accounts of the center with a sum of at least US$12,000 and a property under the name Brokenshire Integrated Health Ministries, Inc.




A report in the Philippine News Agency noted that the order stemmed from an investigation on allegations that the Protestant center’s assets have been “used to finance terrorism.”

UCCP’s HARAN, or “Home and Altar for Renewal, Action, and Nurture,” has been providing sanctuary to displaced indigenous people for more than eight years already.

The government’s National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict accused the church group of using the issue of the indigenous peoples to solicit foreign donations.

The task force claimed that the HARAN center serves as a training ground for young indigenous people to become communist rebels.

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“They were taught how to use firearms and explosives as their defensive and offensive tools to defend their ancestral lands,” read a task force statement released last week.

Last year, the Regional Peace and Order Council in Davao Region approved a resolution seeking the immediate closure of the center.

In September 2020, at least 48 individuals, including Protestant Bishop Hamuel Tequis, were charged with trafficking and child abuse.

Bishop Tequis maintained that HARAN has nothing to do with any ideological movement or any armed group that is waging war with the government.

“The Church’s mission is to help the marginalized and the oppressed such as the indigenous people, he said. “It is sad that we are being persecuted for doing God’s mission,” added the prelate.

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