Malacañang on Friday urged communist leader Jose Maria Sison to “unchain himself from his exile” and face charges against him over a massacre in Leyte during the 1980s.
This came after the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32 ordered the arrest of Sison and 37 others who were accused in the “Inopacan massacre,” a supposed purge of Communist Party of the Philippines members tagged in various offenses.
Dubbed by the CPP-armed wing New People’s Army as “Oplan Venereal Disease,” the massacre reportedly claimed the lives of about 300 residents in Leyte province.
“Mr. Sison should unchain himself from his exile and face the music. His illusive if not illusory dream of wresting political from the present dispensation should give way to a principled and courageous stand to face trial,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said.
“He is welcome to come home to avail of his constitutional right to confront his accusers and prepare for his defense,” he added.
Sison and his wife Juliet, a former communist peace negotiator, have been in self-exile in The Netherlands for nearly three decades.
Aside from the couple, among those ordered arrested were Luis Jalandoni, National Democratic Front of the Philippines senior adviser; Rodolfo Salas alias Ka Bilog, former CPP chairman; Leo Velasco; and Jose Luneta, co-founder of Kabataang Makabayan and former CPP secretary-general.
The murder case against them was filed in 2006 after skeletons of 67 alleged victims were discovered in Subang Daku Village in Inopacan town.
The court did not recommend bail for the accused.
Sison said the list of the accused was “utterly stupid and obviously fabricated,” claiming it included other individuals who were jailed during the supposed massacre and several others “who are already dead for various health reasons.” With PNA
Sison claimed the bones were collected from various cemeteries by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, when he was still military chief under then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
At the time of the supposed massacre, Sison said he was under maximum security detention and “was not in any position then to go over the head of the leadership of the CPP and revolutionary movement.”
Panelo said transgressors of the law “will have their day in court.”
“We are one with the families and loved ones of the victims in calling for justice, the warrant of arrest shall be served as directed upon us by the Judiciary,” he added.
The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
The provincial government of Quezon, meanwhile, has declared the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, as “persona non-grata.”
Gov. Danilo E. Suarez endorsed the joint resolution, which was approved during the Joint Provincial Peace and Order Council and Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Council meeting at the Queen Margarette Hotel in Barangay Domoit on Wednesday.
“The joint resolution adopted by the joint councils is part of our program to strengthen the peace and order of the province and aims to thwart any form of violence perpetrated by the rebel movement,” Suarez said. With PNA