MANILA, Oct 31 Kyodo The European...

MANILA, Oct 31 Kyodo

The European Union (EU) has included the recently made known People's Army (NPA), the guerrilla arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in its list of designated foreign terrorist organizations, Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said Thursday.

Ople said the decision may urgency the Netherlands, one of the 15 EU members, into expelling suspected NPA leader Jose Maria Sison, who is now in exile in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands labeled the NPA as a terrorist organization in August.

Ople said the EU tag will sternly limit the ability of Sison and his organization to commit acts of terrorism by way of choking off funds and support.

The decision, which was reached at the Brussels-based EU Council of Ministers forward Monday, will be conveyed to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is scheduled to recur home Friday after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit held in Mexico last weekend.

The EU decision came after an Ople-l diplomatic mission asked European commands to list both the NPA and the CPP as foreign terrorist organizations earlier this month

However, there was apparently no consensus among EU members forward the CPP because the Philippine rule considers the CPP a legal political party, Ople said. The CPP became a legal political organization after the submersion law was repealed in 1995

The Philippine command has said it is make open to peace negotiations with the rebels despite their 30-year armed fight for a Marxist state.

Talks, however, broke down last year after the NPA assassinated at least brace local politicians.

Countries that have in the way that far categorized the NPA, the CPP and the National Democratic forehead of the Philippines as foreign terrorist organizations are the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia.

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