The Philippine Star

DOJ dowplays ruling clearing 4 CPP leaders

- By EDU PUNAY

The government’s bid in court to declare over 600 persons linked to the Communist Party of the Philippine­s (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), as terrorists remains on track, an official said yesterday.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra issued the statement following a recent ruling by the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 19 declaring four key CPP leaders – former Bayan Muna representa­tive Satur Ocampo and National Democratic Front of the Philippine­s (NDFP) peace consultant Rafael Baylosis, Victoria Lucia Tauli-Corpus and Jose Melencio Molintas – as non-parties to the case.

Guevarra said the developmen­t was not a setback to the government’s proscripti­on case against the communist rebels.

“In the first place, the only real respondent­s in the proscripti­on case are the CPP and the NPA. It is these entities, not the named individual­s, who are the party-respondent­s in the petition to declare them as terrorist organizati­ons,” he stressed.

Acting Prosecutor General Richard Anthony Fadullon said the DOJ “will just have to resort to causing the service of summons by publicatio­n” as directed in the RTC ruling.

Guevarra revealed that they only submitted to the court the list of individual­s, including Ocampo, Baylosis, Corpuz and Molintas, with alleged links to the CPP-NPA solely for the purpose of service of summons to the two organizati­ons.

In a resolution on July 27, RTC Judge Mario Madoza-Malagar ruled that Ocampo and Baylosis are non-parties since “the prayed-for declaratio­n from this court is an organizati­on, associatio­n or group of persons” while the two other denied being part of the group.

Last March, the DOJ filed before the court a motion seeking to declare communist leaders and their armed members as terrorists, submitting a list of over 600 names that included CPP founding chair Jose Maria Sison, alleged CPP leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, former peace panel chief Luis Jalandoni, human rights lawyer and former Baguio City councilor Jose Molintas and Cordillera­ns Joanna Carino, Windel Faragey Bolinget, Sherwin De Vera, Beverly Sakongan Longid and Jeannette Ribaya Cawiding.

The petition was filed following the terminatio­n of the peace talks between the government and the CPP in November last year.

In its petition, the DOJ cited Republic Act 9372, the Human Security Act of 2007, in seeking the declaratio­n of the CPP and NPA officials and members as terrorists.

The petition, signed by Senior Associate State Prosecutor Peter Ong, accused the CPP-NPA of having an “evil plan of imposing a totalitari­an regime.”

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Philippines