Bulatlat News
The resolutions against the two women NDFP consultants and the revolutionary groups were issued soon after the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration and the NDFP issued a joint statement on Nov. 28, 2023 declaring their intention to pursue the peace talks.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Human rights group Karapatan slammed the recent Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) resolution designating National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultants, Elizabeth Principe and Ma. Concepcion Araneta-Bocala as “terrorists individuals” while maintaining the designation of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Party (NPA) as “terrorist organizations.”
The resolutions against the two women NDFP consultants and the revolutionary groups were issued soon after the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration and the NDFP issued a joint statement on Nov. 28, 2023 declaring their intention to pursue the peace talks.
Read: GRP, NDFP announce possible resumption of peace talks
ATC resolution No. 53 designating Principe as a “terrorist individual” and ATC resolution No. 54 maintaining the “terrorist” status of the CPP-NPA were both dated Dec. 6, 2023 but only uploaded on April 17, 2024.
Meanwhile, ATC resolution No. 52 designating Araneta-Bocala as a “terrorist individual” was dated Oct. 25, 2023 and uploaded on Jan. 9, 2024.
Peace consultants Principe and Araneta-Bocala were arrested and detained under the administrations of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III.
Principe was released in July 2009 while the court acquitted Araneta-Bocala of charges of illegal possession of explosives, firearms and ammunition.
Read: Iloilo court clears NDFP consultant of charges
Read: Elizabeth Principe: ‘I am raring to rejoin the struggle against this unjust regime’
“The Marcos Jr.’s duplicity in pursuing peace negotiations with the NDFP is highly evident with the latest ATC resolutions,” Karapatan said in a statement.
In the past years, several peace consultants were also designated by the ATC as so-called “terrorists,” including 87-year old former chairperson and now senior adviser to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating Panel, Luis Jalandoni.
Activists were also designated as terrorists by the ATC. The most recent was the designation of Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) pioneer Sarah Abellon-Alikes, chairperson Windel Bolinget, regional council member Stephen Tauli, and researcher Jennifer Awingan-Taggaoa.
Progressive groups are strongly opposing the Anti-Terrorism Law because aside from the vague definition of “terrorism”, it also violates the people’s right to due process as the law gives power to the ATC to designate so-called terrorists.
“With these hostile acts, the Marcos Jr. regime is neither building confidence nor creating a conducive atmosphere for peace talks. Instead, it persists in its hostile stance, resorting to arbitrary designations by the ATC that do no nothing but stifle dissent and hamper efforts to achieve just and lasting peace for our country,” the group added. (RTS, RVO) 
