Slope

In my last column, I summarized Judge Maldoza-Malagar's decision on the proscription case against the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New ...

Even without performing any of the acts enumerated in the ATA, mere membership in and recruitment to a proscribed organization already merits a penalty. Hernandez that a belief in or active espousal of Communist ideologies is not the same in actual participation in a conspiracy to overthrow the government by force. The accused can only be prosecuted for the political crime, the rebellion. Fortunately, the Supreme Court did declare unconstitutional a provision in Section of the ATA for being overbroad and violative of freedom of expression, in essence agreeing with the proposition that activism is not terrorism. Is this an encroachment on the exercise of the free mind and the right to associate with above-ground organizations which espouse these political leanings in a lawful way? In my last column, I summarized Judge Maldoza-Malagar’s decision on the proscription case against the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New Peoples’ Army, that the CPP-NPA is not a terrorist organization under the HSA for failure to meet the definitional elements to proscribe these organizations under the law.