Delisting of CPP-NPA terror tag ‘out of RP hands’

Malacañang reiterated yesterday that the removal of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) from the foreign terrorist organizations (FTO) lists of the European Union and the United States is out of government’s hands.

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said that the listing of the CPP, NPA and National Democratic Front (NDF) political consultant Jose Ma. Sison in the FTO lists were sovereign acts of the US and EU so the Philippine government could not interfere on the matter.

Department of Foreign Affairs undersecretary for special concerns Rafael Seguis also echoed the same position, saying that the Philippine government has no business telling other governments to remove the CPP, NDF and Sison from the FTO lists.

“We cannot at any instance be the one to request for the delisting. I don’t think we can do that,” Seguis said during a briefing at Malacañang yesterday.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita also noted this.

“The government panel insists that if they are sincere in the conduct of the negotiation, they should agree first to silence the guns, meaning agree to a ceasefire so the environment for the talks may be enhanced,” Ermita said.

“We wish that if they are sincere enough about the resumption of talks, maybe they should consider going back to the negotiating table without giving such preconditions,” he added.

However, Ermita said they would still bring up the matter to Norway as the third party facilitator to the peace talks “so that we will see how we can proceed from where we are, which is a reiteration of the NDF’s call for them to be delisted before they sit down.”

While the matter of the FTO lists of the US and EU is still being sorted out, the Philippine government is also working to place the CPP and NPA on the domestic terrorist organizations list in line with the implementation of the Human Security Act, more commonly known as the anti-terrorism law.

“While they are now in the list of the EU and the US, this is among the priority matters we need to discuss at the level of the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) so that we can take a position of formally having them listed as belonging to terrorist organizations, following what is provided for under the law,” Ermita said.

The HSA requires the ATC to go to the regional trial courts for the proscription of organizations, associations and groups of people who undertake activities that can be characterized as terrorist activities.

Once the ATC determines that the CPP-NPA is a terrorist organization, they would have to go to the court for their proscription in the local terrorist list.

Opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson also cast doubts over the sincerity of the NDF on the conduct of peace talks.

“They know that the (foreign) countries tagged them as such, so why ask the Philippine government to remove them when it wasn’t the one which placed them in the list?” said Lacson, former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Lacson even chided CPP-NDF chairman Jose Ma. Sison for his proposal “when he knows at the back of his mind that it cannot be done.”

“It could be considered as good will on the government’s part. However, the government cannot do it simply because the government has not tagged the NDF as a terror group,” Lacson said.

Aside from the delisting issue, Sison added that the government must also show its sincerity in stopping the military from carrying out unexplained killings, while also indemnifying victims of human rights violations.

“Until now, the government (GRP) has not made any serious response to the just and reasonable demands of the CPP and its political wing, the NDF,” Sison said in a statement from the Netherlands, where he is in self-exile.

Sison said there could never be a ceasefire during the peace negotiations unless the government addresses all the issues.

“If the GRP wants to have a ceasefire during the peace negotiations, it must come to terms with the NDF on the basis of the 10-point Concise Agreement for an Immediate Just Peace proposed by the NDF,” Sison said in a separate statement.

Meanwhile, Sison’s lawyer yesterday clarified the decision of the European Court of First Instance (ECFI), as he lashed back at the government for trumpeting a “wrong interpretation” of the ruling that might have led to confusion.

Lawyer Romeo Capulong asserted that the ECFI decision was “all-encompassing” because it addressed both issues on the freezing of the assets of Sison, and his inclusion in the terror list of the European Union.

In the same line, Sison insisted that the ECFI ruling on July 11 is “clear” that the Council of the EU has violated his right to due process as he was also deprived of judicial protection. – With Katherine Adraneda, Christina Mendez