Tagging may lead to assets freeze
BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR and VICTOR REYES
THE Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) has designated Jose Maria “Joma” Sison, founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, and 18 other communist leaders as “terrorists.”
The council, in Resolution No. 17 dated April 21, 2021, said the 19 were involved in “planning, preparing, facilitating, conspiring and inciting the commission of terrorism and recruitment and membership in a terrorist organization or a group organized for the purpose of terrorism.”
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, who is principal member of the council, said the designation will serve as “basis” for the filing of terrorism charges against the 19 communist leaders, mostly members of the CPP’s Central Committee.
Justice Undersecretary Adrian Sugay said the designation will lead to the freezing of assets by the Anti-Money Laundering Council for an initial period of 20 days. He also said the designated personalities may face additional criminal charges “if it can be determined that they violated relevant provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Revised Penal Code.”
Sison, who has been on self-exile in the Netherlands since the 1980s, dismissed the resolution, saying he and his wife Julieta are “are not at all bothered” by it.
“To start with, the list of names in the designation appears to be arbitrary, dubious,” he said.
“We are not bothered even by the threats of Duterte death squads coming over to hit us which have been persistently reported to us by various sources… Our main concern is for those who are in the Philippines and are designated by the aforesaid resolution and many more people who are red-tagged and vulnerable to the criminal violence of the Duterte regime,” he added.
Sison serves as chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
The NDFP represents the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), in peace negotiations with government.
Sison said most of the individuals tagged as terrorists are consultants of the NDFP negotiating panel.
In November 2017, the President issued a proclamation terminating talks with the NDFP. In March 2019, Duterte declared he was permanently ending the peace talks.
In a separate resolution (No. 16), the ATC designated 10 individuals as terrorists for their links with the Abu Sayyaf and the Daulah Islamiyah groups.
They are Esmael Abdulmalik, Raden Abu, Esmael Abubakar, Muhiddin Animbang, Salahuddin Hassan, Radzmil Jannatul, Majan Sahidjuan, Faharudin Benito Hadji Safar, Mudsrimar Sawadjaan and Almujer Yaddah.
ATC Resolution 17 named the other designated terrorists as Vicente Ladlad, Rafael Baylosis, Jorge Madlos, Rey Casambre, Abdias Gaudiana, Alan Jazmines, Benito Tiamzon and wife Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, Adelberto Silva, Ma. Concepcion Araneta-Bacala, Dionesio Micabalo, Myra Sularte, Tirso Alcantara, Pedro Cadaste, Tomas Dominado, Ma. Loida Magpatoc, and Menardo Villanueva.
The ATC on Dec. 9, 2020 declared the CPP-NPA as a terrorist group.
In Resolution 17, the ATC said 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.”
It also said the CPP Central Committee is the highest decision and policy-making body of the communist group and leads the NPA which is “its main weapon in attaining the Party’s goal of overthrowing the duly elected government by seizing and consolidating political power through violent means.”
Año said most of the 19 have standing arrest warrants, including Tiamzon and wife Wilma, who did not return to the PNP after they were released in 2016 to attend peace negotiations.
“Because they are designated, it will now be used also legally to take appropriate legal actions later, for our law enforcement agencies. They can use such declaration to build up a case, apply arrest warrant,” said Año.
Año also said the designation of the 19 will need approval of the court. In December last year, the ATC designated the CPP and the NPA as terrorist organizations.
Año said government forces will not immediately arrest the 19 for terrorism.
“When you are going to make an arrest, that requires warrant, thats not an automatic arrest warrant,” said Año .
JASIG
Sison said most of the 19 designated terrorists are NDFP consultants who are entitled to protection of the GRP-NDFP Joint Agreement of Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and other binding bilateral agreements.
Signed in 1995, JASIG provides immunity to negotiators and consultants of the NDFP from arrest.
Sison also said Dutch and European Union authorities are aware that he and his companions have been “physically detached” from the Philippines for more than 30 years now. Also, he said Dutch and EU officials know the Duterte administration “has often tried to insult me for my political beliefs and advocacy.”
Some of the 19 were included in the proscription case filed by the Department of Justice in 2018 before a Manila court against the CPP-NPA under the 2007 Human Security Act, the law now replaced by the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 which established the ATC and which is facing at least 30 petitions questioning its constitutionality.
The DOJ proscription case listed at least 600 individuals, including the Sison and the Tiamzon couple, but the former amended its petition in 2019 leaving only eight names alleged to be officers of the communist underground movement.
In 2018, Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the department did not have personal verification of any connection of these individuals to the CPP-NPA.
Sugay defended the designation.
“The ATC followed its internal mechanism for designation.The matter was first referred to a technical working group for purposes of evaluating the basis for the designation. The technical working group then referred its recommendation to the Council for consideration or adoption,”
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said other countries such as the United States have their own terrorist list.
He also assured the public that mere opposition or being critical of government does not make one a terrorist.
ARBITRARY
Rep. Ferdinand Gaite (PL, Bayan Muna), a member of the Makabayan bloc, said the ATC’s move is “truly illustrative of how they would be wielding the Anti-Terror Law to attack government critics, activists, and even ordinary citizens.”
The militant lawmaker said the resolution gives merit to the position of petitioners who questioned the legality of the Anti-Terrorism Law before the Supreme Court.
He said the ATC is “jumping the gun” on the High Court because the act is “contemptuous of the process happening in the Supreme Court, of which the issue of designation is one of the main issues being tackled.”
“The designation of 19 individuals alleged to be part of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines, displays clearly how terror-listing can be extremely arbitrary and devoid of due process, and how the Anti-Terror Council can easily abuse its power,” Gaite said. “Resolutions such as this could be manufactured and churned out at the drop of a hat. The ATC is starting to become a factory of terror-tagging resolutions.” — With Ashzel Hachero and Wendell Vigilia
