THE Philippine National Police leadership has urged Congress to reinstate the Anti-Subversion Law as proposed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government saying that outlawing the Communist Party of the Philippines will end the five-decade old communist insurgency in the country.
Citing the “clear and present danger” posed by the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army and the front organizations that support it, PNP Director for Police-Community Relations, Major General Benigno B. Durana Jr. told lawmakers during the recent Senate hearing that it is the right time to reinstate the Anti-Subversion Law due to imminent threat of communist terrorism to the country’s security.
“There is a clear and present danger posed by the CPP-NPA and the front organizations that support it,” said Durana as he likened the CPP-NPA to termites breathing through the support of their legal front organizations.
PNP chief General Oscar D. Albayalde also expressed belief that the local insurgency movement will die a natural death when its ideological foundation is criminalized.
He issued the statement as he aired the PNP’s full support for the initiative of DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año and other popular moves to restore the anti-subversion law that outlaws the CPP-NPA.
“Because the CPP/NPA employs violence and terrorism to advance its cause to topple government, all its organizational components including ideological roots must be subject to the justice system as violations of law just like the criminal actions committed by armed fighters of the NPA,” Gen. Albayalde said.
According to him, “criminalizing subversion will empower government to exercise its inherent right to protect itself against forces that seek to bring it down.”
The PNP chief also batted for an enabling law that will criminalize subversion saying it augurs well for national objectives in support of Executive Order No. 70 to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
He explained that such law will allow the PNP to effectively implement legal offensive actions against the CPP/NPA/NDF and all the criminal, economic and organizational support systems that sustain its terrorist activities.
Gen. Albayalde maintained that the repeal of Republic Act 1700 or the Anti-Subversion Law in 1992 emboldened the CPP/NPA to wage its campaign of terror across the country while at the same time strengthening its political base and legal fronts.
“They will continue to use the law to circumvent or violate the law. Using democracy to destroy democracy,” said Durana.
