NATIONAL Security Adviser (NSA) Secretary Hermogenes Esperon disclosed before the Supreme Court on Wednesday that several individuals are set to be designated by the Anti-Terrorism Council as terrorists.
Esperon made the disclosure when he was questioned by Associate Justice Rosmari Carandang during Wednesday’s continuation of the oral arguments on the 37 petitions assailing the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.
The security official said the ATC has come up with a resolution designating several individuals with links with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) as terrorists.
He said their names would be published in major dailies today, Thursday.
“There is a resolution of the ATC but until we have published these in local papers, we will not name them publicly. Tomorrow [Thursday], they will come out in the papers,” Esperon said.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, who is part of the ATC, said the designation of any individual as a terrorist “will lead to freezing of assets.”
Department of Justice Undersecretary Adrian Sugay said the ATC would publish the names of individuals designated as terrorists but begged off from giving other information.
“Let us wait for the list to be published in due deference to the ATC. And yes, designation by the ATC is for the purpose of freezing assets,” Sugay said.
Under the ATA, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) may issue a freeze order valid only for 20 days on the financial assets of individuals designated as terrorists.
This may be extended for a period not exceeding six months by the Court of Appeals.
Esperon also played a two-minute video of exiled CPP founder Jose Maria Sison wherein the latter can be heard
mentioning the names of 18 organizations whom he called “allied organizations.”
He also played a 1987 video of Sison supposedly naming the legal organizations expousing National Democratic Revolution.
Esperon also disclosed that about 75 organizations such as the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Anakbayan, Kilusang Mayo Uno, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Gabriela and several others were present in a meeting presided by Sison in Hong Kong in 2020.
These groups, he said, are part of the so-called International League of People’s Struggles, which meets every year.
“The master red-tagger is no other than Jose Maria Sison. We are merely informing the public, this is of course what we called truth-tagging for purposes of public information so that we will not be misled by this movement or triad of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front,” Esperon told the Court.
The oral argument will resume on Monday with the Court expected to hear the legal opinion of amici curiae (friends of the court) former Chief Justice Reynato Puno and former SC Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza.