President Rodrigo Duterte signed the proclamation declaring the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing New People’s Army (NPA) terrorist organization on December 5.
“It’s a proclamation declaring the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army a designated, identified terrorist organization under Republic Act (RA) No. 10168,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said.
RA No. 10168 is the Human Security Act.
“So as the President has stated before, he has finally classified the CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization within the purview of the Human Security Act,” he added.
In November, Duterte said “I will remove them from the category of a legal entity or at least a semi-movement, which would merit our attention, placing them pareho sa Amerika: terrorist.”
“Beginning from now, wala ng rebellion-rebellion, because rebellion is a light offense, it can be bailable except for the leader. We will file [cases] – terrorist, murder, lahat, arson with murder, lahat na, because I would consider them criminals already,” he said.