CPP ‘detests’ terror tag
DAVAO CITY — The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) detests the designation, including its armed wing – the New People’s Army (NPA) - as a terrorist organization.
The CPP issued the statement two days after President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed Proclamation No. 374, declaring the CPP-NPA as a designated/identified terrorist organization pursuant to RA No. 10168, also known as the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2002.
The communist group criticized President Duterte for making as reference the US government’s list of foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in which they have been listed since August 9, 2002. The US State Department has listed 61 international terrorist groups from 1997 to 2017, with only 13 groups so far delisted.
It said the declaration has made the Duterte administration a “strong contender” to get an increased aid for military and weaponry under the US government’s budget for its global way on terror.
“By kowtowing to the US line of ‘counterterrorism,’ Duterte is opening wide the door for increased US military intervention across the country, as he did in Marawi and Mindanao when he declared the now defunct Maute group as ‘terrorists’,” he said.
The CPP also criticized the declaration as it targets the persons and organizations who stand at risk of being designated as terrorists if proven that they are “financing and aiding” the communists.
“This clearly targets the national democratic legal mass movement which he has repeatedly threatened with a crackdown for supposedly ‘conspiring’ with the NPA.
“Duterte will also be able to shakedown or extort from corporations and businesses by simply associating them with the NPA,” it added.
President Duterte, in issuing Proclamation No. 374, cited the law that states: “It is the policy of the State to protect life, liberty, and property from acts of terrorism, to condemn terrorism and those who support and finance it and to recognize it as inimical and dangerous to the national security of the country and the welfare of the people, and to make financing of terrorism a crime against the Filipino people, against humanity, and against the law of nations.”
The proclamation added that the law “criminalizes the financing of terrorism and dealing with property or funds of designated persons/organizations, and prevents and suppresses the commission of said offenses through freezing and forfeiture of the property or funds of said designations persons/organizations, among others.”
Upon the issuance of the Proclamation, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguire was then directed to file a petition before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) under the provisions of the Human Security Act for a judicial affirmation.