PASIG CITY, (PIA) -- The Department of National Defense (DND) today expressed its full support to the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) for designating the National Democratic Front (NDF) as a terrorist organization.
"The DND supports the resolution of the ATC in its designation of the NDF as a terrorist group," Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told the PIA-NCR.
Secretary Lorenzana said ATC Resolution 2021, dated June 23, 2021 "has found probable cause" that the NDF has committed or conspired to commit terrorist acts.
He said the same resolution cited the statement of Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Ma. Sison, who identified the CPP/NPA as "one of the allied organizations of the NDF."
"His wife, Juliet De Lima-Sison," the official said, "was also recently named as the Interim Chairperson of the NDF negotiating panel. The couple were both designated as terrorists under ATC Resolution No. 17 earlier this year."
The defense chief said the CPP/NPA themselves continue to launch attacks against the Filipino people, victimizing innocent civilians and destroying billions’ worth of crucial public infrastructure for a principle that has long since been rendered "obsolete."
"Members of the NDF continue to lure and recruit people to join the NPA, while the CPP itself admits and maintains through its own public media releases and documents the direct and indispensable role of the NDF in its armed operations," Secretary Lorenzana said.
"The Department hopes that this development justifies and enables the defense sector to move forward in its efforts to address internal security concerns and lay the foundations of sustainable, lasting peace and national development," he added.
As prescribed by Republic Act 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, the ATC is the main implementing body of the law, which was passed last year.
Under the law, the ATC may designate an individual, groups of persons, organization or association, be it domestic or foreign, as a terror group when the council finds probable cause that the group is commiting, attempting to or conspiring to engage in terrorist acts.
The ATC said earlier in its resolution that the CPP and NPA were organized for the purpose of engaging in terrorism in its over five-decade long communist insurgency. (PIA-NCR)
