SolGen seeks rearrest of NDF consultants
MANILA — Solicitor General Jose Calida yesterday instructed lawyers in his office to ask the court to cancel the bail bonds of the National Democratic Front consultants, as President Duterte indicated he was no longer keen on pursuing formal negotiations – even backchannel talks – amid continuing attacks by government forces.
The move quickly drew an angry reaction from the Communist Party of the Philippines, whose Information Bureau described it as a violation of two agreements earlier forged with the Philippine government, JASIG and CARHRIHL. "It is a strongman's act of bad faith aimed at bullying the NDFP to bow to his terms of surrender," the CPP Information Bureau statement said.
According to OSG Spokesperson lawyer Erik Dy, the Solicitor General instructed the handling solicitors to ask the courts to cancel the bail bonds of the NDF consultants, order their arrests, and recommit them to their detention facilities.
"The conditional release granted them by the courts are for the sole purpose of the formal peace negotiations. The conditions are based on the Supreme Court Resolution dated 2 August 2016, and not based on JASIG," Dy said, pertaining to an SC Resolution involving NDF leaders Saturnino Ocampo, Randall Echanis and Vicente Ladlad.
"The conditions provide that should the formal peace negotiations cease or fail, their bond shall be deemed automatically cancelled," Dy added.
In its statement, the CPP Information Bureau said: "By cancelling the scheduled talks with the NDFP, GRP President Duterte is showing he no longer has need for peace negotiations with the NDFP amid waging a triple war of death and destruction under its USsupported martial law rule."
The CPP-IB said "Duterte continues to lay the foundations for authoritarian rule under US imperialist tutelage. He is completely intoxicated with martial law powers. He is mistaken in thinking he can suppress the Filipino and Bangsamoro people and their revolutionary forces in their resistance to the oppression and exploitation by the ruling oligarchy and their US imperialist masters."
Effectively, Duterte is merely "stoking the broad masses of the Filipino and Bangsamoro people to unite, wage mass struggles and armed revolutionary resistance."
The JASIG that the Left accuses the government of violating stands for Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, described as "an identification system that gives protection to security consultants of both parties." JASIG ensures the continuity of the peace talks by assuring both parties that their negotiators and consultants can move and speak freely in relation to their role in the peace process, explained former Kabataan party-list representative Mong Palatino.
On the other hand, CARHRIHL is the landmark Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law signed in 1998, which recognized the need to apply human rights principles when responding to the armed conflict.
Meanwhile, NDFP peace panel chair Fidel Agcaoili expressed dismay that the government "seems so eager to terminate the peace negotiations even using the flimsiest of all excuses to cancel the backchannel talks."
(InterAksyon.com)