MANILA – Malacañang on Friday (Manila time) stated that the Philippine government will appeal a Manila court’s move to dismiss the petition to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), as a terror organization.
According to Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles, the government still has available remedies to overturn the decision of Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 19 to junk the bid to classify the CPP-NPA as a terror group.
“Actually, since the decision is not yet final and this is an RTC decision, marami pang available remedies ang ating gobyerno (the government still has available remedies),” Cruz-Angeles said.
It would be “improper” to comment further, Cruz-Angeles said, emphasizing that she wants to identify the parameters since “details are still not available to us.”
Nevertheless, she assured that the legal battle is not yet over.
“I understand this might have been filed under the Human Security Act rather than the (Anti-)Terrorism Act,” Cruz-Angeles said.
“Malayo pa ‘to, malayo pa (It will take time). And you know, we don’t even know what parameters are here. By then, we’ll understand what remedies will be available if remedies are even necessary,” she added.
The court denied the petition for proscription filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2018 to classify the CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization.
Based on Section 17 of Republic Act (RA) 9372 or the repealed Human Security Act of 2007, the DOJ’s petition was filed which mandates the RTC’s ruling before an organization can be formally declared as a terrorist.
The court noted in its ruling that “none” of the alleged terrorist acts of the CPP-NPA outlined by the DOJ caused “widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the Philippine populace.”
The DOJ would file a motion for reconsideration, according to Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.
