BAGUIO CITY — The Anti-Terrorism Council has labeled four leaders of the left-leaning indigenous group Cordillera Peoples Alliance terrorists.
In a resolution, the council accused the officers of being members of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing New People’s Army. Their assets and properties are at risk of being frozen by the government, it added.
The council said their designation as terrorists, approved on June 7, was “based on verified and validated information, sworn statements and other pieces of evidence gathered by Philippine law enforcement agencies.”
The council has labeled 32 people terrorists for their alleged connection to the Maoist group, which it considers as a terrorist group.
Karapatan denounced the labeling and called it harassment. “We deplore the increasing use of terror laws against activists and peasants to suppress political dissent and violate basic rights and civil liberties, as what numerous human rights advocates and groups have warned when the Anti-Terrorism Act was signed into law,” it said in a statement. — Artemio A. Dumlao and John Victor D. Ordoñez
