4 CPA members challenge terrorist designation before Baguio court

Four officers of the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) on Thursday filed a petition before a Baguio court to challenge their designation as terrorists, according to the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL). 

The NUPL said CPA chairperson Windel Bolinget, Sara Alikes, Jennifer Taggaoa, and Stephen Tauli asked a Baguio Regional Trial Court to invalidate the mode of designation under paragraph 3, Section 25 of the Anti-Terrorism Law on the grounds that it deprived them of their constitutional right to due process and access to adequate remedies.

It also said that the basis of their designation is considered classified information and cannot be disclosed.

“Our clients are asserting that the power of designation is being abused and weaponized against rights defenders, including indigenous peoples’ rights activists like them who have been defending their ancestral domains and exercising their right to self-determination,” NUPL president Ephraim Cortez said in a statement.

The four CPA members were designated as terrorists in a resolution dated June 7, pursuant to paragraph 3, Section 25.

As a resulf of this designation, their personal bank accounts, the accounts of their relatives, and the CPA’s account were frozen. 

According to the NUPL, the four CPA members questioned the basis of their designation before the ATC. 

“The grievous consequences of designation, which are not limited to asset freezing, encroach upon our clients’ basic rights and freedoms. Their case demonstrates the urgent need to revisit and declare the ATC’s power of administrative designation as unconstitutional,” Cortez said. 

The Supreme Court previously declared unconstitutional the qualifier in Section 4 and the second paragraph of Section 25 of the Anti-Terrorisl Law.