Court dismisses DOJ’s plea to designate CPP-NPA as terrorists
A Manila court has junked the Department of Justice’s petition to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) as terrorist organizations, making clear that rebellion and political acts are not acts of terrorism.
The Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 19 stated in a 135-page ruling written by Presiding Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar that a a perusal of the CPP-NPA’s program shows that it is organized not for the purpose of engaging in terrorism.
“‘Armed struggle’ is only a ‘means’ to achieve the CPP’s purpose; it is not the ‘purpose’ of the creation of the CPP,” she said, after examining the constitution and key documents of the CPP-NPA.
The Philippine government filed the proscription case against the two rebel groups in 2018, under the provisions of the Human Security Act of 2007 (Republic Act No. 9372), which was eventually repealed by the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (Republic Act No. 11479).
A proscription case seeks a court ruling declaring as terrorists an organization, association, or group of persons supposedly organized to engage in terrorism, or which actually uses acts to terrorize or “to sow and create a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace” to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand.
The case is filed by the Department of Justice with the regional trial court, under the Human Security Act, and with the Court of Appeals under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
In seeking to declare the CPP-NPA as terrorist groups, the DOJ cited nine incidents of killings, attempted killings and abduction from 2019 to 2020 in different areas in Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur, Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro City — all in Mindanao.
The Manila court said that while the nine incidents it examined can be considered terrorism under the Human Security Act, their authorship could not be traced to the CPP-NPA.
Eyewitnesses have only identified the perpetrators through their manner of clothing — wearing an all-black ensemble — which the court said, is not enough to determine membership in the rebel groups.
According to the court, no evidence was presented by those claiming to be former members of the NPA that there is an official party directive to commit the atrocities and that these were official acts of the CPP-NPA.
