Court orders rearrest of CPP’s Tiamzons
THE Manila Regional Trial Court ( RTC) has issued a warrant of arrest against Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon.
A January 11 decision of Presiding Judge Thelma Bunyi- Medina of the Manila RTC Branch 32 and released to the public on Wednesday ordered the arrest of the Tiamzons as it granted the Department of Justice’s motion for recommitment and cancelation of bail.
“In light of President Rodrigo Duterte’s express and categorical declaration, with the issuance of Proclamation 360, formally terminating the peace talks with the CPP/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front [NDF], which issuance said accused does not dispute, the court temporary liberty,” the court said.
CPP is the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Reacting to the RTC decision, a lawyer for the Tiamzons also on reconsideration, “even if seemingly a long shot under the present circumstances, remains a legal option.”
Edre Olalia, also a legal consultant to the NDF negotiating panel, in a statement, maintained that the “peace negotiations have not yet been terminated properly and in accordance with the solemn and binding protocol mutually agreed upon by the parties [the NDF and the Duterte administration].”
According to Olalia, “a unilateral declaration by one side without the proper written notice duly receipted by the other, no matter how categori- does not make the grade and does not bind the latter.”
“Parenthetically, it is quite curious that the judge in the GRP [Government of the Republic of the Philippines] court order for the recommitment and cancelation of [the] bail of our clients supposedly due to the cancelation of peace talks used the following disposition: ‘Having judiciously evaluated the that the recommitment and cancellation of the respective bail bonds... are warranted.’ May we ask, who is really issuing the order here? “he said.
Police ready
The Philippine National Police (PNP) also on Wednesday said it would comply if the court ordered it to rearrest the Tiamzons.
PNP spokesman Dionardo Carlos said the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and all police units expect to receive a copy of the arrest warrant against the couple.
The Tiamzons were released after posting bail of P100,000 in August 2016 in time for the resumption of the peace talks between the government and the NDF.
On January 10, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said, “We are monitoring them [Tiamzon couple]. We will wait for the order of the President. If he orders their arrest, then we are going to arrest them.”
The President called off peace talks last year after the CPP ordered communist guerillas under the New People’s Army to intensify their attacks on government troops.
Talks unlikely
Lorenzana also on Wednesday downplayed the possibility of the resumption of peace talks between the government and the NDF.
The President over the weekend proposed to CPP founding chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison for them to have “one-on-one” talks.
Sison had expressed his openness over the proposal and said it might after being on self-exile in The Netherlands with his wife for decades.
In a text message to reporters, Lorenzana said Sison’s openness was the latter’s “only way he can show to his poor NPA [New People’s Army] terrorists that he is still relevant.”
“But I dont think the peace process will be resumed even after the President and he talk. Because let us always bear in mind that the communists go to peace talks not to pursue peace but to gain strategic and tactical advantage,” the Defense chief added.
“Peace to them is when they have totally won their so-called revolutionary war to institute a communist government,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sison said he was “glad” with Malacañang spokesman Harry Roque’s statement clarifying that Duterte “made himself clear” that there was no intention at all of meeting him halfway, “one-on-one.”
“I am glad that Duterte, through his parrot [Roque], has made himself clear that he never had the intention of meeting me and was lying when he told Mindanews that he wished to meet me in particular and converse one-on-one with me in a room,” he added.
“Nevertheless, in the interest of the Filipino people and in my sincere wish GRP-NDF peace negotiations, I preferred to give importance to Duterte’s public offer of a private conversation and I agreed to meet him in a country near the Philippines,” Sison said.
He added that his comrades and lawyers had reminded him of the “treacherous character” of Duterte, citing recent threats against him made by the President in recent public speeches.
“I have therefore suggested a neutral venue abroad for the one-on-one conversation with Duterte. I cannot submit myself to the disposition of anyone that boasts of himself as a murderer with impunity at the age of sixteen and as an instigator of mass murders that have already offended the Filipino people and other peoples of the world,” Sison said.