By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
February 22, 2018
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/970287/breaking-declare-cpp-npa-as-terrorist-group-govt-asks-court

President Duterte issued Proclamation No. 360 on November 23, 2017 to terminate the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations and subsequently Proclamation No. 374, declaring the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations, subject to formal judicial processes under R.A. No. 9372 or the Human Security Act of 2007 and RA No. 10168 or the Terrorism Financing, Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012.

The coldblooded purpose of Duterte in issuing these proclamations is to kill and leave no opening for the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations and allow him to use the CPP and NPA as scapegoats in proclaiming martial law and undertaking all forms of mass intimidation in the course of establishing a fascist dictatorship and railroading a pseudo-federal constitution under the sway of a pyramid of dynasties and warlords nationwide.

Now, the Duterte regime is at the stage of having submitted to the Manila Regional Trial Court the petition to proscribe the CPP and NPA. If as expected the court would grant the petition, the Duterte regime and its agents would be able to seek permission of the Court of Appeals (CA) to engage in wiretapping activities as well as freezing, examining and seizing bank accounts and other assets of suspected CPP and NPA leaders, members, supporters and financiers.

The Duterte and predecessor regime have long slandered the revolutionaries of the CPP and NPA as ¨terrorists¨ in order to perpetrate and justify the gravest acts of state terrorism, including torture, mass murder, arson, looting, bombing of communities and forced evictions. In this regard, Proclamation 374, R.A. 9372 of 2007 and R.A. 10168 of 2012 are superfluous because the aforesaid crimes could be committed by the regime and could be ascribed to the revolutionaries and their mass followers whether or not they stood to be charged with rebellion or unjustly with common crimes.

But this time, Duterte, his business cronies and military agents can use RA No. 10168 (the Terrorism Financing, Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012) to enrich themselves privately by engaging in large scale and wide scale extortion and confiscation of bank accounts and other assets with the use of official and unofficial lists of ¨terrorists¨. The public and even the well-to-do cannot feel safe from the state terrorism that the Duterte regime is unleashing against the people.###