MANILA: Human rights groups on Friday denounced a petition by the Philippine government seeking to declare more than 600 alleged communist members as terrorists.
The petition was filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ), through Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong, at a regional court in Manila on Feb. 21.
Lawyer Farah Decano, former president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) — Pangasinan chapter, said instantly tagging those on the list as terrorists was like convicting them without trial.
“To say they are terrorists means that they are criminals because terrorism is a criminal offense. We have an antiterrorism law. If you just brand them as criminals, then they are being denied due process,” Decano told Arab News.
“In fact before we call a person a criminal, they have to be first convicted after trial. So to tag them as terrorists wholesale without due process, there is a violation,” she said.
Cristina Palabay, secretary-general of KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights), accused the Duterte administration of sowing fear among its critics with the filing of the petition.
“There is no doubt (it) is an effort to sow fear and panic among Duterte’s supposed detractors, subjectively prepare the public for more intense political repression, and be the front act of a crackdown against the dictator wannabe’s critics,” Palabay said in an email to Arab News.
The names in the 55-page petition included long-time leaders of the communist movement such as Netherlands-based Jose Maria Sison and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples.
Sison, former professor of President Rodrigo Duterte, founded the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in 1969. Tauli-Corpuz is known for advocating for the rights of indigenous people in the Philippines. The latter has denied the allegation, calling it “baseless, malicious and irresponsible.”
According to Palabay, the inclusion of Corpuz’s name on the list is a “clear case of reprisal from Malacanang” (the official residence and workplace of the Philippines president), as the UN special rapporteurs expressed concern over possible cases of human rights violations due to the imposition of martial law in Mindanao.
Palabay added the list is a take-off from the Order of Battle (OB) lists of previous administrations. She recalled that persons listed on the OB “often ended up arrested based on false charges, incarcerated and even tortured, missing or killed.”
“Not only do such lists incite human rights violations, they also legitimize and make normal to the public the government’s abuse of power in suppressing dissent and decimating the supposed enemies of the state,” she said.
The KARAPATAN leader also said that the list was “severely defective as it contains scores of aliases (aka), John and Jane Does so any person can be added later” — and names of paramilitary group members have allegedly been presented and paid as surrenderees.
“On the whole, DOJ’s proscription petition is dubious and a maneuver meant to harass, target and criminalize persons in progressive organizations,” she said.
A dispatch from the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) called the petition a “virtual hit-list” and accused the Philippine government of “putting at grave risk” more than 600 people by labeling them as members of the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA).
Carlos Conde, HRW Asia division researcher, said that the suit appears to stem from a proclamation signed by Duterte last December that branded the CPP and NPA as terrorist groups. The signing of the proclamation followed the collapse of peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the communist group.
In January, Duterte announced he that would “go after the legal fronts” — the left-wing groups that allegedly support the NPA.
