Serve summons vs Sison, court orders DoJ
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2019 03:27:26 +0000
A Manila court has ordered the Department of Justice (DoJ) to serve the summons it issued to communist leader Jose Maria Sison as it accepted the revised plea of the government to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), as terrorist groups and “outlawed organizations.”
In a resolution dated Feb 1. 2019, Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 19 admitted the amended petition of the DoJ’s seeking to tag eight persons as terrorists.
The Justice department removed more than 600 individuals from its list of alleged terrorists, following the court’s decision last year to cross out United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, former Bayan Muna party-list representative Satur Ocampo, former Baguio City councilor and former Asia representative to the UN Expert Mechanism Jose Molintas and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant Rafael Baylosis for lack of evidence to prove that they are officers of the CPP-NPA.
Magdoza-Malagar said only Sison and co-accused Mindanao Commission Secretary Antonio Cabanatan were directly associated with the CPP-NPA. Therefore, subpoenas for the CPP-NPA may be served through them.
The court cited multiple sworn statements, criminal cases including one in which Sison was accused of murder of 15 people in Inopacan, Leyte in 2006 as its rationale for linking the leftist leader to the CPP-NPA.
But because Sison is in exile in The Netherlands and Cabanatan’s whereabouts are unknown, the summons shall be published in a newspaper, the court said. CATHERINE A. MODESTO
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