U.S. Toughens Up On the NPA

In the Bush administration’s ‘war without borders’ strategy against so-called terrorist networks, the US state department came with its ‘Terrorist Exclusion List’ naming 39 groups, including the Philippines’ Abu Sayyaf Group and the New People's Army. The updated list is part of a renewed defense and security deal between President Arroyo and Bush which is expected to generate tougher measures against the NPA.

BY BOBBY TUAZON
Bulatlat.com

The inclusion of the communist-led New People’s Army (NPA) in the “Terrorist Exclusion List” drawn up by the United States’ state and justice departments was not entirely unexpected. With its inclusion, however, the NPA joins 38 other “terrorist organizations” which, according to state department spokesman Philip Reeker, are legitimate targets for deportation or denial of visas. The list, he said, is part of a “methodical approach to all aspects of the campaign to eliminate terrorism as a threat to our way of life.”

The NPA, founded 32 years ago as the armed component of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), had in fact been in the “terrorist list” of the US state department until it was de-listed in 1999. In its original list, the state department identifies the NPA as “Maoist” with the intent to overthrow the government. In other words, the homegrown guerrilla army is designated as ideologically-driven.

Similar lists compiled by other US agencies as well as intelligence and “counter-terrorist” centers maintained in other countries including the United Kingdom and Australia, considers the NPA as purely ideologically-driven with avowed political goals. There is an admission that the guerrillas’ sources of fund – usually assumed by the foreign governments as being sourced from some foreign countries – remain “unknown.”

Actually, in the Philippine military and police parlance, the word “terrorist” is a term that has been used and overused to describe the NPA. In various ways since the 1970s, the leftist guerrillas have been described as either “Ma-Maos” or “CTs” (communist terrorists) – a practice reminiscent of the Philippine-American war when US mercenary generals branded Filipino patriots as “bandits.”

Under Aquino’s “total war strategy” during the late 1980s-1990s, the criminalization of the NPA’s ideological and political acts took effect with no less than the Supreme Court reversing its original rulings by favoring the issuance of warrantless arrests against suspected leftists, whether armed or unarmed. Today, all suspected communists are no longer charged with rebellion but with “illegal possession of firearms,” “murder” or other criminal acts.

The inclusion of the NPA in the updated list of the US state department only came about when US Attorney General John Ashcroft prepared a list of “terrorist groups” on Oct. 31 for consideration by the state department. The list originally mentioned 46 organizations, including the NPA.

The list prepared by Ashcroft followed declarations by US President George W. Bush to launch a “war without borders” against all suspected terrorist groups led by the al Queda network wherever these operate and bring them to an American military court.

By the list’s broad legal implications, therefore, the NPA, its suspected sympathizers or supporters whether in the Philippines or abroad are now subjects of stiffer immigration laws, are deemed legitimate targets of international police and military operations and, if arrested, are subject to American prosecution.

Collaboration

The inclusion of the NPA in the updated list of “terrorist groups” was also the result of intelligence collaboration between American authorities and the Philippines’ own Armed Forces and police intelligence. Pentagon intelligence agencies and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), among several other agencies, maintain operational collaboration with Philippine defense and police agencies in counter-insurgency and, now, in the anti-terrorist campaign.

It was these Philippine officials whose advice Arroyo sought in raising both the Abu Sayyaf and communist bogey in her recent talks with Bush in Washington in order to lay the ground for bigger US military and economic assistance to the country. The assistance was expected to boost the AFP’s cash-strapped modernization program and provide economic funds for the debt-ridden government.

In all, as Malacañang announced, Bush gifted Arroyo with some $4.6 billion financial and material assistance package: $92.2 million for defense; $1.5 billion in economic and trade assistance; $246 million in loans and grants from the World Bank; and $2.6 billion in trade and investments pledged by the US private sector.

Under negotiation by trade officials of the two countries is the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) amounting to $1 billion a year. Under the GSP, some Philippine exports will be allowed to enter the US market with zero tariffs.

In addition, the Exim-Bank has agreed to loan some $41 million for AFP’s acquisition of an electronic sensor device on board a C-130 plan to be used for intelligence surveillance, as well as three C-130K planes.

More pledges

In turn, Arroyo reportedly pledged to allow the US military greater access to use the Philippine territory as a launching pad for its “anti-terror campaigns” in Afghanistan, Libya and other countries suspected for terrorist activities. But such interventionist wars are expected to heighten in Asia particularly in the Philippines where the president has allowed the entry of more American military advisers in her government’s fight against the ASG and, eventually, the NPA.

The renewed Philippine-US defense and security arrangements – reinforced by the “Terrorist Exclusion List” - give license to American forces to conduct covert and overt operations against the NPA. The NPA’s and CPP’s united front umbrella, the National Democratic Front (NDF) will be subjected to the same treatment.

In the “war without borders,” the British and other European Union governments have threatened to impose sanctions against foreigners suspected to have links with “terrorist organizations” – including warrantless arrests, denial of visas, freezing of funds and other extraordinary measures. Based on their current definition of what a terrorist is, all types of political activists including those opposed to globalization as well as those engaged in environment advocacy including the harmless Greenpeace will face sanctions.

This is just one of the implications of Bush’s doctrine, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.” And those against the US led by its “Terrorist Exclusion List” must suffer the consequences of such doctrine. The Arroyo administration should be held no less accountable for such act. Bulatlat.com

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