23/02/2026
[PRESS RELEASE]
CSOs call for dismissal of Civil Forfeiture Case Against Jazmin Jerusalem
The Council for Peopleβs Development and Governance (CPDG) and the Defend NGOs Alliance stand in firm solidarity with Jazmin βMinetβ Jerusalem as she faces a civil forfeiture case filed before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Manila by the Anti-Money Laundering Council on 19 February 2026. The summary hearing for the application of Asset Preservation Order is in Manila RTC Branch 28.
Minet has worked in the development and humanitarian sector since 1980. For more than four decades, she has stood with vulnerable communities, disaster survivors, grassroots organizations, and human rights defenders. As Executive Director of the Leyte Center for Development, a board member of CPDG, and the National Spokesperson of Defend NGOs Alliance, she has consistently advanced participatory governance, disaster response, community-based development, and the defense of civic freedoms. Her work has strengthened local capacities and amplified the voices of marginalized sectors.
She is now being targeted with a civil forfeiture order seeking to confiscate funds from both personal and organizational bank accounts, as well as a service vehicle. This forfeiture case is separate from, but related to, the ongoing terrorism financing charges she is also facing. It arises from the broader terrorism financing allegations lodged against her and reflects the continuing weaponization of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act (TFPSA). Civil forfeiture, a mechanism meant to recover illicit wealth, is being deployed to undermine legitimate development and humanitarian work. These actions form a part of a broader pattern of repression targeting development workers and civil society actors.
The pattern is well documented. NGOs, humanitarian actors, and human rights defenders have faced red-tagging, surveillance, bank account freezes, and fabricated charges. Reports by Karapatan and the National Union of Peopleβs Lawyers show how counterterrorism and anti-money laundering frameworks are increasingly used to constrict civic space. United Nations Special Rapporteur Irene Khan has likewise warned that counterterrorism measures in the Philippines have had a chilling effect on freedom of expression and association.
In this context, Mamamayang Liberal Partylist filed a resolution calling for an investigation into the impacts of the Anti-Terrorism Act and the TFPSA on Filipinos. Similarly, the Makabayan bloc filed a parallel resolution and introduced a bill to repeal the TFPSA. Such scrutiny is urgently needed. The experience of community workers like Minet reveals how these laws are being used not to protect the public, but to silence dissent and weaken independent institutions.
We also reiterate the urgent call to abolish the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, whose persistent red-tagging have fostered a hostile environment that enables legal harassment and financial persecution.
Civil forfeiture in this case amounts to economic strangulation. It threatens to strip resources from organizations serving marginalized communities and sends a chilling message across the development sector.
Defending Minet Jerusalem is about defending civil society itself. We reject the criminalization of development work and the use of financial laws to silence dissent. We call for the dismissal of this case and the end of policies that weaponize counterterrorism against the people. We stand with Minetβand we will continue to resist every attempt to intimidate and silence those who serve. # # #
