NTF-ELCAC hopes RTC will ‘proscribe’ CPP-NPA-NDF terror group

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 24, 2022): NTF-ELCAC hopes RTC will ‘proscribe’ CPP-NPA-NDF terror group (By Marita Moaje)

NTF-ELCAC Spokesperson for Social Media Affairs and Sectoral Concerns Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy (File photo)

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC) is hoping the Regional Trial Court (RTC) will soon proscribe the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) as a terrorist organization.

This, after the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) issued a resolution on January 26, finding probable cause to designate 16 underground mass organizations of the CPP-NPA-NDF as “terrorist groups of persons, organizations or associations" based on verified and validation information, as well as testimonial and documentary evidence.

“We are one step away from getting the justice we have long raged for. Once the RTC proscribes the CPP NPA NDF as terrorist, their house that is built on deceit and lies by this terrorist organization will crumble —and we will be able to put behind bars those who’ve had the bloody nerve to deny any links to the CPP-NPA-NDF while at the same time are unable to condemn the million and one atrocities they’ve committed against the Filipino people,” NTF-ELCAC Spokesperson for Social Media Affairs and Sectoral Concerns Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy said in a statement on Thursday.

The 16 organizations declared as terrorists include:
* Revolutionary Council of Trade Unions (RCTU);
* Katipunan ng mga Samahang Manggagawa/Federation of Labor Organizations (KASAMA);
* Pambansang Katipunan ng Magbubukid/National Association of Peasants (PKM);
* Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan/Patriotic Movement of New Women (MAKIBAKA);
* Kabataang Makabayan/Patriotic Youth (KM);
* Katipunan ng Gurong Makabayan/Association of Patriotic Teachers (KAGUMA);
* Makabayang Samahang Pangkalusugan/Patriotic Health Association (MASAPA);
* Liga ng Agham Para sa Bayan/League of Scientists for the People (LAB);
* Lupon ng mga Manananggol para sa Bayan/Committee of Lawyers for the People (LUMABAN);
* Artista at Manunulat ng Sambayanan/Artists and Writers for the People (ARMAS);
* Makabayang Kawaning Pilipino/Patriotic Government Employees (MKP);
* Revolutionary Organization of Overseas Filipinos and their Families (COMPATRIOTS);
* Christians for National Liberation (CNL);
* Cordillera People's Democratic Front (CPDF);
* Moro Resistance Liberation Organization (MRLO); and
* Rebolusyonaryong Organisasyong Lumad/Revolutionary Organization of Lumads (ROL)

“Magtulungan tayo. Ipagdasal natin na iproscribe ng RTC ang komunistang teroristang CPP-NPA-NDF na ‘terorista’ (Let’s help each other. Let us pray that the RTC will proscribe the communist terrorist CPP-NPA-NDF as ‘terrorist’,” Badoy said. “At tuloy tuloy nating ipaglaban ang ating mahal na Pilipinas (And let us continue to fight for our beloved Philippines).”

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

The NDF has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the ATC on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973.

‘Long time coming’

Badoy said NTF-ELCAC rejoices in the designation of the CPP-NPA-NDF’s 16 underground mass organizations as terrorists.

“This has been a long time coming and brings us closer to a fuller protection of our people and our country and the complete purge from our beloved country of this violent and toxic ideology that has long fallen by the wayside of history precisely because of its inhumanity and irrelevance and that the Filipino people have long clearly rejected,” she said.

Badoy said with the ATC’s move, the country is ending what should have ended a very long time ago.

“We are now fiercest in our defense and we are taking back our country, our children, our indigenous peoples, the poorest among us from these communist terrorist fiends,” Badoy said.

“That chapter in our country’s history is over and we are writing a new one. And it will be filled with our children fulfilling their promise and living long, happy lives in a country free of this communist terrorist scourge,” she added.

She said with the designation of these underground organizations as terrorists, “we have effectively paralyzed their operations by the freezing of their bank accounts. And just as importantly, any membership and recruitment to these organizations are considered crimes.”

For over 50 years, she said the CPP-NPA-NDF committed grave crimes and atrocities that have destroyed many lives.

The CPP NPA-NDF, she said, was able to mask themselves as advocates for noble causes that they used to lure Filipinos into joining and supporting above-ground organizations such as KABATAAN, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela, CEGP, IBON, Karapatan, NUPL, NUJP, and many others.

She said these organizations taught the Filipino youth “the deeply wounding language of hate and mistrust towards the government while denying any links to the CPP-NPA-NDF.”

“And once in, an unbearable number of our people have been methodically manipulated down the path of allegiance to these illegal underground organizations in which they are radicalized to believe the lie that the only solution to the ills of society is through the violent overthrow of government,” Badoy said.

“And so this chapter in our country’s history was writ in blood-soaked pages of Filipinos who have died at the hands of fellow Filipinos. A chapter filled with tears of our mothers who have searched the ends of the earth for children they can no longer hold because they now lie in shallow unmarked graves across the land, of our indigenous brothers and sisters being mercilessly massacred and front lining a war they knew nothing about. We are no longer taking it,” she added.

The groups had been identified by the NDF official website, and enumerated these underground organizations as its "member organizations".

The ATC resolution also said CPP founder Jose Maria Sison, in his keynote speech for the NDF's 48th anniversary in April 2021, identified these underground organizations, along with the CPP-NPA, as allied organizations of the NDF.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1168506