Council tags CPP members ‘terrorists’
THE Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) tagged 19 members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), including peace consultants, as terrorists.
In Resolution 17 that was approved on April 21, 2021 but was only made public on Thursday, the ATC named officials of the CPP’s central committee, including its founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison and his wife Julieta, and Benito Tiamzon and his wife Wilma, who were ordered released by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016, as terrorists.
Also included on the list are some
peace consultants who participated in the peace negotiations that were later scrapped by the Philippine government. They are Vicente Ladlad, Rafael Baylosis, Jorge Madlos, Rey Casambre, Abdias Gaudiana, Alan Jazmines, Adelberto Silva, Ma. Concepcion Araneta-Bocala, Dionesio Micabalo, Myrna Sularte, Tirso Alcantara, Pedro Codaste, Tomas Dominado, Ma. Loida Tuzo
Magpatoc and Menardo Villanueva.
In a separate resolution, the council also tagged as terrorists Mudsrimar Sawadjaan alias Mundi Sawadjaan, who is affiliated with the Abu Sayyaf and the Dawla Islamiyah; Esmael Abdulmalik alias Abu Toraype, Esmael Abubakar alias Commander Bungos and Muhiddin Animbang alias Kagui Karialan of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
The others are Raden, Radzmil Jannatul, Majan Sahidjuan and Almujer Yadah alias Mujeryaf of the Abu Sayyaf Group; Salahuddin Hassan alias Abu Salman of the Dawla Islamiyah; and Faharudin Benito Hadji Satar alias Abu Zacaria/Abu Bakar of the Maute Group.
Sison said he and his wife were not bothered by their inclusion in the resolution signed by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr.
“My wife Julieta and I are not at all bothered by Resolution Number 17 (2021), which designates the two of us as ‘terrorists.’ To start with, the list of names in the designation appears to be arbitrary, dubious and even contradictory or inconsistent with the various public and purportedly personal statements even of its own NTF-Elcac (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict),” Sison said.
He expressed confidence The Netherlands government will not kick them out.
Some members of the House of Representatives condemned the “terror-tagging” of the CPP members.
“[This] designation displays clearly how terror-listing can be extremely arbitrary and devoid of due process and how the [ATC] can easily abuse its power,” Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Ferdinand Gaite said.
He said the “terror-tagging” of peace consultants proved that the government has no interest in resolving its issues with the National Democratic Front.
“This is truly illustrative of how they would be wielding the Anti-Terror Law to attack government critics, activists and even ordinary citizens. Resolutions such as this could be manufactured and churned out at the drop of a hat,” Gaite said. “Nagsisimula nang maging ‘factory’ of terror-tagging resolutions itong ATC (The ATC is beginning to be a ‘factory’ of terror-tagging resolutions).”
Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas said the Supreme Court should stop the implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Law to prevent the whimsical tagging of persons as terrorists.
Kabataan Party-list Rep. Sarah Elago also condemned the tagging of individuals as terrorists.
“This will only open the floodgates to more human rights violations and abuses of power,” Elago said.