I JUST celebrated my birthday last May 26. Thirty years existence; short of 20 years from the time Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and New People’s Army (NPA) were established. Until now, it has been damaging the moral fiber of Philippine society beyond the recent midterm election.
The suspension of the peace talks before dashed hopes of ending the almost five decades of communist rebellion in the country. But to no avail, CPP, NDFP and NPA, still drumbeating a different music in the tune of violence despite the fact that there has been a warning from the government that this shall end by 2019. The CPP-NPA is dead serious in peace development, yet their hands are playing dirty. They are enemies of the state and they could expect the full force of the government because the President is well prepared to really destroy the apparatus.
As a political analyst/strategist, the Department of Justice (DOJ) shall continuously be working with various agencies, foremost of which are the military and police establishments in pushing for the tag or label with Reds as terrorists despite Joma Sison insisting last Feb. 12, 2019 that he is protected by “the Refugee Convention and by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights,” being a recognized political refugee in the Netherlands. Therefore, he said, he cannot be deported to the Philippines. The Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 19 also identified Mindanao Commission Secretary Antonio Cabanatan as having links to the CPP-NPA.
Now, should the petition be granted by the court, it will have the consequence of allowing government to seek the permission of the Court of Appeals (CA) to engage in wiretapping activities against the communists, as well as apply for a freeze order on, and examination of, the bank accounts and assets of their leaders and identified members. My girlfriend (Tina D. Siuagan) who is a defense security analyst and senior law student told me that the application, Republic Act (RA) No. 9372, also known as the Human Security Act of 2007, allows the appellate court to authorize the police or any law enforcement officer to listen to, and intercept and record any communication, message, conversation, spoken or written words of a court-declared and outlawed terrorist organization or group of persons, as well as the freeze and examination of their bank accounts, placements and assets.
One may then acknowledge that the CPP-NPA is a living insurgent system that thrives in the dark underbelly of society seething with economic and political grievances; such as poverty, lack of access to basic social services, corruption and financial mismanagement, among others. In a nutshell, I hope that this “going-after–leftist strategy” will not remain a smokescreen to go after all kinds of criticism/critics. Let the expansion of left leaning organizations protected and influenced by legal fronts in Congress, Courts and Executive bureaucracy be stopped.