Communist-terrorist tag on NPA remains

From Malaya Business Insight (Apr 6): Communist-terrorist tag on NPA remains

DEFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana yesterday said the defense and military establishment will continue to refer to the New People’s Army as a “communist-terrorist” organization until the group stops its activities like kidnapping, extortion and arson.

“They are indeed communist-terrorists. In fact, other countries have (labeled) them as communist terrorists,” Lorenzana said.

The United States government has included the NPA, and its political wing Communist Party of the Philippines, in its list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2002. It said the NPA has “active urban infrastructure to conduct terrorism and uses city-based assassination squads.”

Lorenzana said the DND and the AFP will continue to call the NPA and its members as communist-terrorists “if they continue to commit terroristic acts like burning, kidnapping, extortion, which are actually the work of terrorists.”

“If they stop these, then we will change that. Maybe we will call them insurgents only or NPA. But if they continue doing all these things, we will not stop calling them terrorists,” added Lorenzana.

Incidentally, government and communist negotiators have earlier agreed to work for the delisting of the CPP and the NPA as a foreign terrorist organization as part of the ongoing peace process.

Lorenzana said the NPA should also stop these kind of atrocities amid the ongoing peace talks. Negotiators from both sides are also crafting a more permanent and binding bilateral or joint ceasefire.

“Does this mean that while they are talking peace, ceasefire, they will continue to burn and extort? I think that’s not right,” said Lorenzana.

Security officials are actually proposing a halt of the the NPA’s extortion activities in the joint ceasefire. The group will not likely to agree to this because extortion, which they call revolutionary tax, is a major fund source.

“How can they be of help if they continue to burn bulldozers, burn buses, banana plantations? it not helping us. Is that helping us? It’s not so they should stop these,” the defense chief added.

http://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/communist-terrorist-tag-npa-remains