Names of ATC-designated terrorists out today – NSA

MANILA, Philippines — Names of individuals who have been designated as terrorists by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) will be publicly released today.

National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. announced this yesterday as he was being interpellated by Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Rosmari Carandang during the eighth oral arguments on the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (ATA or Republic Act No. 11479).

Asked if there had been individuals who have been designated as terrorists, Esperon replied: “I don’t want to preempt the ATC because I have not yet seen the publication today or tomorrow of the designation of several persons connected with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA). But we will do that.”

He said the ATC has come out with a resolution, but opted not to reveal the names of the individuals designated as terrorists until the list has been published in newspapers.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, a member of the ATC, said with the designation, the freezing of their assets would follow.

Esperon also informed the SC magistrates that the Abu Sayyaf group was previously proscribed by virtue of the Human Security Act of 2007.

“But now, we are proscribing the CPP-NPA and others have been designated by virtue of the ATA. The CPP-NPA has been designated as pursuant to United Nations resolution and their designation by supranationals or other countries including the United States, European Union, New Zealand, Australia and Canada,” he added.

Esperon referred to CPP founder Jose Maria Sison as the “number 1 red-tagger” because in the two videos that he played, Sison allegedly identified the open, legal or created organizations that are believed to support armed rebellion in the country.

“The master red-tagger is no other than Jose Maria Sison. We are merely informing the public, this is of course what we called truth-tagging for purposes of public information so that we will not be misled by this movement or triad of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front,” the security adviser told the Court.

In the two videos, Sison mentioned several groups.

The first video was reportedly recorded during the 48th anniversary of the National Democratic Front while the other video was from 1987.

“Mr. Sison named the affiliate underground organization of the NDFP whose primary role is to arouse, organize and mobilize tens of millions to support their so-called national democratic revolution,” Esperon said.

In the 1987 video, Sison reportedly named the legal organizations that are part of the national democratic revolution “also known as armed struggle or armed rebellion to overthrow government,” he added.