Labeling NDF a terror organization will lead to Duterte rigging Eleksyon 2022 –Sison

The Anti-Terrorism Council's designation of the National Democratic Front as a terrorist organization was intended to allow President Rodrigo Duterte to control and rig the 2022 elections, self-exiled communist leader Jose Maria Sison said Monday.

In a statement, Sison explained that the designation will allow Duterte to stay in power together with his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, and prevent his arrest for crimes against humanity on the prospective warrant that may be issued by the International Criminal Court.

Sison said the designation is also clearly intended to "close further every possibility" of resuming the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations at least for the duration that Duterte is in power.

It is also intended to "harass, silence, arrest or even kill the NDFP consultants and resource persons and others involved in the peace negotiations and target even the broad range of peace advocates, critics, and oppositionists," Sison said.

He said it will also "pave a wider path for the Duterte regime to declare martial law and impose a fascist dictatorship on the people either before the anticipated 2022 elections or after this is rigged to preempt the 1986 type of people’s uprising."

"The diabolical purpose of the Duterte regime in designating the NDFP as terrorist cannot be understated because this has been preceded by the murder of NDFP consultants committed so flagrantly by Duterte death squads," Sison said.

"The tyrant Duterte is clearly on the path of undertaking a series of foul actions to defeat extrajudicially the petitions before the Supreme Court against the unconstitutional and antidemocratic provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act. The designation itself is at war with basic principles of international humanitarian law on the legitimate status, rights and character of national liberation movements."

Earlier, the ATC designated the NDF as a terrorist organization over its links to the communist rebels.

The ATC said the NDF is “an integral and inseparable part” of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army, which were designated as terror groups last December.

The designation would trigger the government’s authority to freeze assets of the NDF, which was established in April 1973.

In April, the ATC designated Sison, his wife Julieta, and the rest of the 19-member central committee of the CPP as terrorists.

Sison dismissed the designation as “arbitrary and dubious.”

Petitions challenging the constitutionality of the anti-terror law are pending before the Supreme Court. — DVM, GMA News