MANILA – Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison has shrugged off his designation as a “terrorist” by the government’s Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC).
Sison, in self-exile in the Netherlands for over 30 years now, said the CPP “cannot be engaged in any act of terrorism as it cannot victimize and offend the very people it relies on to achieve national and social liberation.”
“It is utterly wrong to misrepresent acts of a revolutionary movement as a case of common crime. This is a violation of international legal standards and the Manila government’s own Hernandez political offense doctrine, which recognizes the social roots of rebellion, the nobility of its motives and purpose, and keeps open the possibility of peaceful resolution of the armed conflict,” Sison said in a statement.
Sison added that he and his wife were “not at all bothered” by the terrorist designation as political consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) are entitled to the protection of the Joint Agreement of Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and “other binding bilateral agreements.”
“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 evil minions,” Sison said.
NTF-ELCAC is the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
“We have been alert to these threats. Our main concern is for those who are in the Philippines and are designated by the aforesaid (ATC) resolution and many more people who are red-tagged and vulnerable to the criminal violence of the Duterte regime,” said Sison.
Sison, as well as 18 others, were tagged as terrorists by the ATC in a resolution approved by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon and published in newspapers yesterday.
According to the resolution, the ATC found “probable cause” to tag the 19 people as terrorists “for planning, preparing, facilitating, conspiring, and inciting the commission of terrorism and recruitment to and membership in a terrorist organization or a group organized for the purpose of engaging in terrorism.”
A separate ATC resolution also released on Thursday named, too, 10 members of the Abu Sayyaf Group as “terrorists” for “conspiring, planning and preparing for the commission of terrorism.
Under the Anti-Terrorism Law, the ATC may designate any individual and organization — whether domestic or foreign — as terrorists upon establishing probable cause that they have committed or attempted to commit acts defined and penalized under its sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 2.
“Designation plays a critical role in the fight against terrorism and is an effective means to eliminate, prevent or suppress the financing of terrorist acts, the provision of support to entities and persons involved in terrorist acts, the recruitment of members of terrorist groups, and the supply of weapons to terrorists,” the ATC resolution stated./PN
