The Department of Justice (DOJ) three weeks back asked Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 19 to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) as a terrorist organization along with a host of other groups and individuals.
DOJ’s Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong was the one who filed the 55-page petition.
Under law – the Human Security Act of 2007 – DOJ has to first petition a regional trial court for the inclusion of a group or individuals in a list of declared terrorists or outlawed organizations.
Click and scroll through the main body below of the DOJ petition for proscription:
But the petition for proscription has been met by a slew of protest and flat denials, aside from apprehension about whether or not the list has been favored with due vetting and indubious scrutiny by the government’s intelligence branches.
Human rights advocates were “shocked” that the list includes the United Nations special rapporteur for the rights of indigenous people Victoria Tauli-Corpuz via linkage to the Communist Party of the Philippines’ Ilocos-Cordillera Regional Committee (ICRC).
Karapatan, in a statement issued by its Secretary General Cristina Palabay, pointed out that a close scrutiny of the terror list reveals that it includes names of dead persons and desaparecidos: “… there are 8 names of individuals already deceased and 2 desaparecidos that were included in the petition. This is indicative of how ludicrous and dubious Duterte’s fake terror list is.”
While National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) as an organization was omitted in the proscription, Karapatan added, some of those involved in the peace talks between the government and NDFP were listed, like Peace Panel members Coni Ledesma, Juliet de Lima and Benito Tiamzon; Chief Political Consultant Jose Maria Sison; Senior Adviser Luis Jalandoni; Wilma Austria-Tiamzon and at least 20 other peace consultants; and former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, independent cooperator.
