Gov’t asks Manila court to declare 600 persons, including UN rapporteur, as terrorists

March 9, 2018

The justice department has asked the Manila Regional Trial Court to declare as terrorists more than 600 leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and its armed wing New People’s Army (NPA), as well as dozens of activists and a United Nations (UN) rapporteur.

The department submitted a list of more than 600 individuals the government seeks to declare as terrorists through a petition it filed before Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 19 last February 21.

Among those included in the list were CPP founder Jose Maria Sison, alleged ranking CPP leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, and National Democratic Front (NDF) peace negotiators Luis Jalandoni, Coni Ledesma, Randall Echanis, and Rafael Baylosis, who is detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

Also in the list were former Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo, Catholic priest Frank Fernandez, Ilocos environmental activist Sherwin de Vera, and UN special rapporteur for the rights of indigenous people Victoria Tauli-Corpuz.

The department claims Tauli-Corpuz is a member of the CPP’s Ilocos-Cordillera Regional Committee (ICRC).

It filed the petition following President Rodrigo Duterte’s Proclamation No. 374, declaring the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations, and anyone proven to be financing these groups would be held liable under the law.

The proclamation came a week after Duterte issued Proclamation No. 360, which cancelled government’s peace talks with the CPP-NPA and its political wing, the National Democratic Front (NDF). DMS