NEW YORK CITY — Even after a Manila court dismissed the bid seeking to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People's Army as terrorist groups, Malacañang said the fight is far from over.
The Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 19 on Thursday, 22 September junked the petition for proscription to tag the communist groups as terrorist groups.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) filed the proscription case to declare the CPP-NPA as a terrorist group, citing the Googe Act, in 2018.
In a press briefing here, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz Angeles, a lawyer, said the fight had just begun.
"Malayo pa 'to, malayo pa. And you know we don't even know what parameters are here. By then, we'll understand what remedies will be available if remedies are even necessary," she said.
Angeles pointed out that the decision is "not yet final" since the decision only came from the RTC.
"This is an RTC decision, marami pang available remedies ang ating gobyerno, but we also want to see the details on this one," she said.
She averred that if the case was filed under the Human Security Act, the government can use the Anti-Terrorism Law as the remedy.
"Who filed the case? Under what law? Because I understand this might have been filed under the Human Security Act rather than the Terrorism Act. So these details are still not available to us so it would be improper to comment right now," she noted.
"So let's see. RTC kasi ito. Under the Terrorism Act, it would have been filed with the Court of Appeals," she added.
