Tagaytay (The Philippines), 11 March 2015 - Officials from key counter terrorism agencies in The Philippines received advanced training on countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in partnership with the Anti-Money Laundering Council's Secretariat (AMLC) between 23 and 27 February 2015.
Technical level officials who attended the workshop had already completed the National Basic Training Course on Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) in March last year. As part of the counter-terrorism programme, "East and Southeast Asia Partnership on Criminal Justice Responses to Terrorism", this advanced five-day session in Tagaytay, the Philipines, is part of a continued series of technical assistance activities carried out under the EU-UNODC Joint Initiative for Supporting Southeast Asian Countries to Counter Terrorism in partnership with the Anti-Terrorism Council.
Countering the financing of terrorism is a crucial element for criminal justice systems to effectively implement counter-terrorism measures. Mr. Vencent Salida, Deputy Director of the AMLC Legal Services Group, expressed appreciation for cooperation with the UNODC to "reinforce existing measures and create new ones to improve our country's counter-terrorism program." In addition to technical capacity building, qualified trainees were identified during the course of the training session to participate in the Training-of-Trainers (ToT) approach in order to continue similar workshops in the future.
"The trainees participating in this workshop demonstrated a thorough understanding of the challenges terrorism financing pose to The Philippines and the region", said Hernan Longo, UNODC Expert on Counter Terrorism. "By implementing the ToT approach and collaboration with The Philippines, we ensure the ownership and sustainability of the programme and continue to strengthen future capacities."
Finally, implementation of the CFT training course is in line with the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (1999), and in support of the recently adopted UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2199 seeking to combat terrorism through economic sanctions.
