CPP risks of being tagged as terror group under new law

By Ronron
March 9, 2007

If the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) continues its violent activities after July 14, 2007, then it could be tagged officially as a terrorist group under the recently passed Human Security Act of 2007.

The same thing is true for the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), the Jeemah Islamiyah (JI), and the Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM).

Anti-Terrorism Task Force (ATTF) Director for Legal, Public Information and Advocacy Ricardo Blancaflor said all these groups may be declared as “outlawed organization, association, or group” and their members, “terrorist,” under Section 17 of Republic Act 93721 if they commit acts of terrorism as defined therein.

The law takes effect two months after the May 14 elections, or on July 14.

According to the law, terrorism is committed if any of the following are committed by the person: piracy (in general) and mutiny at sea; rebellion or insurrection; coup d’ etat; murder; kidnapping and serious illegal detention; crimes involved destruction; arson; possession and use of toxic substances and hazardous wastes; violation of Atomic Energy Regulatory and Liability Act of 1968; hijacking; violation of Anti-Piracy and Anti-Highway Robbery Law of 1974; and illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

And those should sow and create a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace, in order to create the government to give in to an unlawful demand.

Under Section 17, entitled Proscription of Terrorist Organizations, Association or Group of Persons, the Department of Justice (DOJ) shall apply or recommend to a Regional Trial Court for the tagging of a person or group of persons as terrorists.

While Blancaflor said it is best to wait after July 14 to see if the CPP-NPA still does its previous violent activities, he admitted that as it is now, “based on their previous actuation,” the group could be proscribed as a terrorist.

“As we have seen, as we have felt, as the whole country have actually been affected, yes,” he replied when asked if the CPP-NPA is a terrorist based on the definition of the new law.

Blancaflor cited the acts of arson, murder, illegal possession of firearms, and the creation of fear and panic by those activities, by the CPP-NPA.

“As we seen many times, if you kill the barangay captain, that creates fear in the community, that’s creating fear and panic. And of course, their illegal demand for subverting the country in itself is an unlawful demand,” he said.
“If they will start coming down from the hills, if they will stop this abusing, condemn their own killings, then there will be no need to tag them as terrorists. But it’s really up to them, to their actuations after July 14,” he continued.

Blancaflor acknowledged that the CPP as of this time is not illegal with the repealing by Congress of the Subversion Law in the late 1980’s.

But members of its armed wing, the NPA, are liable for the crime of rebellion, under the Revised Penal Code (RPC).

Should the government proscribe the CPP as a terrorist organization, its officials and members can then be arrested and detained for at least six months for violating the RPC provision on illegal association, Blancaflor said.

The proscription of the group as a terrorist will then be part of the basis of law enforcers to run after them, even if it has yet to commit terrorist activities.

“Running after terrorists is not just dismantling their groups. We have to understant that terrorism has other elements in fighting it, including prevention, interdiction and preparation… Now, with this law, we have surveillance. With surveillance, we can proceed with the preparation stage. We can get enough information to interdict them, to prevent them from furthering the crime or altogether freeze their account,” Blancaflor explained.

The CPP-NPA has been waging guerilla warfare in the countryside for almost four decades now.

Because of the violent activities of its 7,100 fighters, the European Union and the United States governments tagged the group and its leaders as terrorists in 2004. This development prompted their backing out from the negotiating table with the government for a peace accord in August of that year.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), which is tasked to address the insurgency problem in the country, has in itself called the CPP-NPA members as “communist or dissident terrorists.”/DMS