PHILIPPINE ministers are seeking a court order designating the Communist Party of the Philippines and its New People’s Army military wing as terrorist organisations.

The order would formalise a presidential decree issued last year that says the same thing.

The Maoist party has been waging a guerilla war against the government since the 1960s, but peace talks with the government were initiated by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016.

The president even invited prominent socialist leaders to take up ministerial positions, with Rafael Mariano becoming agrarian reform minister and Judy Taguiwalo taking charge at the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

All were forced from office last year, however, after Mr Duterte cancelled peace talks because guerilla attacks on soldiers were continuing.

Military sources claimed “hundreds” of communists were infiltrating ministries with the aim, according to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, of “stockpiling arms and ammunition which they could later use against our soldiers.”

The Justice Department’s petition to the court says the communists have been insincere in peace talks.

“Their main purpose is to mobilise all their forces in preparation for the ‘people’s war’ aimed at overthrowing the duly constituted authorities,” it complains.

Mr Duterte has already offered bounties for the deaths of communists — “No need to bring me the body, bring me the head, put it in a styrofoam,” he recently declared.

He was condemned by women’s rights groups last week after saying female communists should be shot in the genitals to render them “useless.”

At the same time, he hinted that he would agree to new peace talks if the army advised him to, saying: “I have to consult my military people. They’re the ones being killed not me.”

A court order would enable assets and bank accounts belonging to suspected communists to be frozen and companies that pay “revolutionary taxes,” which the government says are extorted by force in communist strongholds, to face legal action.