Rody mulls meeting 2 communist leaders
President Duterte is mulling on the proposed meeting with two peace negotiators of the communist rebel group this month.
The President bared that
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) negotiators Fidel Agcaoili and Luis Jalandoni have relayed information about their intention to return to the country to talk to him.
Duterte said he has consulted the military about the matter and would make an announcement when he returns from his visit to Singapore and Papua New Guinea next week.
“Agcaoili and Jalandoni... I will not keep it a secret. I do not want iyang confidential-confidential. Pupunta dito sabi nila gusto nila akong kausapin. Ang problema nila pagka hinuli sila. So sabi ko talagang huhulihin kayo (I don’t want it confidential. They said they will go here to talk to me but the problem is they will be caught. I said, I will really arrest you),” he said during his visit to Palawan last Saturday.
Duterte said he immediately convened a meeting with military officials to discuss the request of the two negotiators.
“Nagtawag ako ng cluster meeting kasali na mga military. So what do you think? Sabi nila, baka. Baka pala. It’s not a very big margin there. Pero baka pala (I called for a cluster meeting including the military. So what do you think? They said, maybe. Just maybe. It’s not a very big margin there but maybe),” he said.
“So, when I go back after Papua New Guinea and Singapore, I will make the announcement. Kaya usap tayo ulit kasi baka, baka pala (so let’s talk again because it’s just maybe),” he said.
Malacañang recently announced the government would arrest NDF consultants previously covered by a safety conduct pass agreement amid the collapse of the peace talks. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo made the statement after defending the lawful arrest of NDF consultant Vic Ladlad in Quezon City.
President Duterte earlier terminated the peace talks with the communist rebel group in protest of its atrocities against government troops and other civilians.
Duterte, in a recent meeting with security officials, has ordered authorities to pursue the proscription case seeking to declare the communist rebel group as a terrorist organization. A national task force to address the armed conflict has also been created by the President.
Terrorists tag Meanwhile, Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the government will pursue relentlessly its court case to declare as terrorists the more than 640 leaders and members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed group, the New People’s Army (NPA).
Guevarra said communist rebels have been tagged by the military and the police as behind the killing of nine farmers last month in Sagay, Negros Occidental.
“The President has instructed the DOJ to relentlessly pursue the proscription (prohibition or restraint) case against the CPP and the NPA,” he said.
He added that the instruction of the President was done during the meeting of the executive committee of the National Security Council (EC-NSC) in Lapu-Lapu City.
He pointed out that the government considered the Sagay incident, which was linked to the destabilization plot of communist rebels, as an “anarchical activity” and “threat to national security.”
After the termination of the peace talks between the CPP and the government late last year, the DOJ filed with the Manila regional trial court (RTC) last March a petition to declare the leaders and members of the CPP and NPA as terrorists.
Among those named in the proscription case were former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Rafael Baylosis, Victoria Lucia Tauli-Corpus and Jose Melencio Molintas.
Also named by the DOJ were alleged CPP leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, former peace panel chief Luis Jalandoni, human rights lawyer and former Baguio City councilor Jose Molintas, and Joanna Carino, Windel Farag-ey Bolinget, Sherwin De Vera, Beverly Sakongan Longid and Jeannette Ribaya Cawiding.
In filing its proscription petition, the DOJ cited the provisions of Republic Act No. 9372, the Human Security Act of 2007. It accused the CPP and the NPA of adopting “an evil plan of imposing a totalitarian regime.”
The petition, however, was stalled by the RTC’s declaration that Ocampo, Baylosis, Corpuz, and Molintas were non-parties to the case.
Secretary Guevarra explained that the RTC ruling “pertains only to the service of summons, not on the merits.”
“The court said Ocampo and the three others cannot be summoned because the subjects of the case are groups and not individuals. It had nothing to do with merits of the petition,” Guevarra said. (With a report from Rey G. Panaligan)