MANILA – Classifying the New People’s Army (NPA) as a terrorist group would not affect the peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines/National Democratic Front (CPP/NDF).
This was the reaction of Professor Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms (IPER), on the plan of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to classify the NPA as a terrorist group.
Casiple made the reaction during the Forum on Political Reforms and the Mindanao Peace Process: Challenges and Prospects held Monday at the Makati Diamond Residences in Makati City.
The political analyst noted that Duterte was prompted to declare the NPA as a terrorist group with the killing of a four-year-old baby in Bukidnon and a policeman as well as the past incidents of atrocities committed by the NPA.
Likewise, Casiple described the threats/accusation of the President against the NPA as in the “realm of possibility and not idle threats.”
He stressed that the President made the threats/accusation against the NPA and not against the CPP/NDF.