NDF consultants facing arrest
The government has cancelled the safety conduct passes extended to Communist rebel negotiators following the collapse of the peace talks.
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza sent a letter yesterday to National Democratic Front (NDF) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison and panel chair Fidel Agcaoili about the matter which paves the way for the arrest of the NDF consultants.
“Following the President’s announcement of the cancellation of the peace talks with the CPP/NPA/NDF and per his instructions, the Government is hereby serving this no-
tice of the termination of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). Please be guided accordingly,” Dureza said in the letter.
President Duterte had ordered the arrest of the NDF consultants who had been freed to join the peace negotiations. As for Sison, the President advised the Communist leader not to return to the country or he would be arrested.
“We will start to look for them and start to arrest them if they were in prison before and released on the condition that they are needed in the talks,” Duterte said about the NDF consultants allowed temporary liberty during the talks. “I will order the military and police to arrest them,” he said.
But the communist leaders claimed that NDF consultants are immune from arrest as part of the JASIG pact.
In a statement, the government peace panel said, “Despite the cancellation of the peace talks, the Duterte administration remains committed in its peace efforts by continuing with resolve to explore all opportunities to intensify implementation of genuine reforms for the benefit of the people, particularly socio-economic programs in conflict-affected communities. It shall also continue to pursue other paths to peace and undertake all forms of peace initiatives and peacebuilding efforts at the national, regional and local levels to keep the peace.”
“We assure our people that the government will continue its vigilance in the preservation of law and order and in protecting our people against insurgent activities and threats of terrorism, and pursue the enhancement of our democratic institutions. Let us be one in our call for a stop to armed violence and pursue just and lasting peace by ways of peace.”
Arrest consultants
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said the NDF consultants are no longer immune from arrest with the cancellation of the JASIG.
In a press briefing, Marine Colonel Edgard Arevalo said about 20 NDF consultants were freed in order to participate in the peace talks with the Philippine government in Oslo, Norway and recently in Rome, Italy.
“The negotiators enjoy temporary liberty on account of bail granted by the courts at the behest and the intercession of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines,” Arevalo said.
“The grant of that temporary liberty is to freely travel in the Philippines and abroad solely to participate in the peace negotiations,” he added.
“The NDF negotiators should comply forthwith especially those who are on bail because the ground for the grant of bail has ceased to exist,” Arevalo said.
Arevalo said that if the negotiators fail to do that, they will be considered to have “jumped bail” and may be validly arrested.
“The negotiators in question are serving prison terms or are at least charged with non-bailable crime and hence they are out of prison not by virtue of ‘Safe Conduct Passes’ but of bail,” Arevalo noted.
With the termination of the peace talks, the ground for their temporary liberty ceases to exist.
Seven returned
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) yesterday confirmed that seven of the 15 peace negotiators of the National Democratic Front (NDF) have returned to the country after attending the third round of the GRP-NDF peace negotiations in Rome last month.
Immigration record shows that couple Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, Adelberto Silva, Alfredo Mapano, Tirso Alcantara, Pedro Codaste, and Porferio Tuna who left the country between January 14 and 18 returned simultaneously on January 31.
Immigration officials who declined to be named said the BI has no record of the eight NDF consultants who might have left the country for Rome using other names.
They were identified as Concha Araneta Bocala, Ernesto Lorenza, Eduardo Genelsa, Ariel Arbitrario, Runel Saluta, Jaime Solidad, Keneddy Bangibang, and Alan Jazmines.
Arbitrario was arrested along with two others in a joint police-military checkpoint in Barangay Sarawan, Toril, Davao City Monday.
Watch list
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has placed the NDF consultants on the Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order (LBO) who were granted conditional bail to participate in the peace talks.
“What we did ngayon, iyung lahat ng mga members or consultants na nagkaroon ng bail because of the peace process maglalabas kami this afternoon ng LBO (What we did is to issue LBOs for members who were granted bail because of the peace process),” Aguirre said yesterday.
Aguirre said he will also consider asking the courts which issued the conditional bails to order the arrests.
Once the peace consultants have been placed under the Immigration LBO, they will have to seek permission from the BI before leaving the country.
Aguirre earlier advised the NDF consultants on bail to voluntarily return to detention.
Good faith
“When they come back here, dapat siguro as a sign of good faith bumalik sila sa detention cell katulad ng good faith na ipinakita ng ating Pangulo sa kanila (Once they are back in the Philippines, they should return to detentions cells as a sign of good faith like what the President did when he ordered them released),” Aguirre said.
Aguirre explained the provisional liberty granted by the courts was only for a certain period, after which, those on bail are required to report to the respective courts handling their cases.
“Ang magde-decide diyan will be the court. Isa lang, ang court lang, kung bibigyan sila ng extension or what (The courts are the only ones who can decide if their temporary liberty will be extended),” he said.
In the meantime, Aguirre is also looking into whether the period the consultants were granted liberty has already lapsed and if there were any violations made on the conditions set by the courts.
“Iyon lang ang binigay sa kanila. Dapat mag-renew sila. Kung walang renewal parang wanted na sila kung di sila mag-renew (They are only given a specific period. Afterwhich, they have to renew. Otherwise, they become wanted persons if they do not renew),” he explained.
No improvement
Weighing in on the peace talks, Vice Mayor Paolo Z. Duterte maintained that peace talks should be held in the country not overseas.
“Sa tinuod lang, wala na kasabot ang bag-ong henerasyon unsa pay tumong nila anang pakiggyera sa kapwa Pilipino (this generation no longer understands what they (the NPA) are fighting for),” the eldest son of the President said.
“If the CPP/NDF/NPA are really for the masses, they should find it in their heart that killing Filipino soldiers is basically against what they are fighting for.”
The vice mayor added that decades of fighting between government and rebel forces have not improved anybody’s life.
“They have been fighting the government for how many decades now and nothing has improved. Not in their lives nor in the lives of the Filipino masses they claim to be fighting for,” Vice Mayor Duterte said.
“And why of all places should we hold peace talks abroad? The problem is here in the Philippines and there in the mountains,” he added.
Peace negotiations, Vice Mayor Duterte said, must be felt by the stakeholders and only by doing it here could we truly have a peace talks that are people-centered and not just for the benefit of a few individuals.
“I just hope that despite all these hullabaloo, both sides would give the welfare of the masses priority over their big egos,” he said.