Esperon to SC: Persons tagged as terrorists out in Thursday's papers

The Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) will release on Thursday the names of individuals whom the government has tagged as terrorists, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Esperon made the commitment during the oral arguments on the petitions seeking to nullify the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020. 

“There is a resolution of the Anti-Terrorism Council but until we have published this in local papers we will not name them publicly," Esperon said when Associate Justice Rosmari Carandang asked about suspected terrorists.

"Tomorrow they will come out in the papers,” he added.

The law’s implementing rules and regulations provide the ATC resolutions designating individuals or groups as terrorists will be published on the council's website, in the Official Gazette, and in a national newspaper.

Activists have criticized the provision for the publication of a list of supposed terrorists, saying it would be the "mother of all red-tagging," referring to the act of labeling people and groups as communist rebels or fronts.

In many cases, red-tagging preceded the murders of activists and human rights workers in the Philippines.

However, the Office of the Solicitor General insisted that the government is not engaged in red-tagging. —NB, GMA News