Relatives of National Anti-Poverty Commission lead convenor Liza Maza on Monday has denied that she is hiding from the law following a P1-million bounty offered for her arrest.
At a news conference in Quezon City, lawyer Evalyn Ursua, along with Maza’s son Anton and sister Caridad Hipolito, said that Maza will not run away from the law, saying that she is just taking “safety precautions,” following the issuance of arrest warrants against her and three other former party-list lawmakers—Satur Ocampo, Rafael Mariano, and Teddy Casiño.
“She [Maza] is not a fugitive. She is not a criminal. The charges are just fabricated,” she said.
When asked why Maza is not attending court hearings, Ursua said “she is following legal procedures. She is not violating anything. She is not a fugitive. “In fact, she is represented in court,” she added.
Maza’s son, meanwhile, said that “the trumped-up charges were filed when I was still a child. Other related cases had already been dismissed.”
The Philippine National Police has appealed to Maza, Ocampo, Mariano, and Casiño to surrender.
The Citizens’ Crime Watch has offered a reward of P250,000 each or a total of P1 million for any lead on the whereabouts of the four accused.
Nueva Ecija’s Palayan City Regional Trial Court Branch 40 has ordered the arrest of the four former lawmakers for multiple murder case filed in 2006.
Meanwhile, the PNP said it welcomes the offer of the reward for information on the whereabouts of Maza and company.
PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde, however, clarified that the amount was not a “dead or alive” offer as he urged the militant leaders to turn themselves in.
“We welcome the reward offer put up by private citizens to hasten the judicial process in a murder case involving the four militant leaders. Albayalde said “the P1-million reward should encourage would-be informants to provide relevant information on the whereabouts of these wanted persons.”
“Although the reward offer is not officially part of the government reward program, I must clarify that this is not a dead or alive bounty, but monetary compensation for information provided. At any rate, I would like to reiterate our appeal to the concerned individuals to turn themselves in and face the issue squarely before the bar of justice,” he added.
Albayalde said tracker teams from the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the National Bureau of Investigation are working on leads and expect to obtain positive results soon.
The PNP chief added that if captured, there will be no special treatment for the said personalities.
As this developed, the Department of Justice admitted that the government did not verify the membership of the Communist Party of the Philippines when it filed a petition early this year declaring the group a “terrorist organization.”
During the department’s budget presentation at the House of Representatives’ committee on appropriations, chaired by Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra made the remarks when asked by Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate on whether the Justice department was able to double-check the names of more than 600 individuals, allegedly CPP members, and its armed wing, the New People’s Army.
Guevarra in effect admitted that the government, despite the huge amount it spends for intelligence gathering and operations, does not really know who its enemies are in the communist underground movement.
Last February, the DoJ filed a petition to a Manila court seeking to declare the CPP and NPA “terrorist” organizations. It was during the leadership of then-Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre when the petition was filed.
Zarate likened the government’s ‘terrorists’—tagging to a hitlist “where these individuals are linked to an organization which it wants to be proscribed.”
“Did you not even conduct a validation, checking on the part of DoJ before filing this case? Because it involves also the lives of the people,” Zarate asked Guevarra.
In response, Guevarra said: “The fact that several hundreds of individuals were named in that petition was based on information supplied solely to the Department by the intelligence agencies of the government.”
“The DOJ itself did not have any personal verification of any connection by these individuals with the Communist Party of the Philippines or the New People’s Army,” he added.
Guevarra also said the naming of these supposed communist rebels was only “procedural.”
“So some names have to be mentioned in the hope that they will file the necessary responsive pleading on behalf of the respondent-entities, meaning the CPP and NPA,” he said.
The DOJ has proposed a P 20.037 billion budget for 2019.
In a petition filed Feb. 21, the Justice department asked the Manila City Regional Trial Court, Branch 19, to declare as terrorists more than 600 communist leaders and left-leaning activists.
The list includes ranking Communist Party of the Philippines leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, and National Democratic Front peace negotiators Luis Jalandoni, Connie Ledesma, Randall Echanis, and Rafael Baylosis, who is already detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.
The Justice department also listed former Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo, Catholic priest Frank Fernandez, Ilocos environmental activist Sherwin de Vera, and UN special rapporteur for the rights of indigenous people Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Vicente Ladlad and Adelberto Silva.
The DOJ tagged Tauli-Corpuz as a member of the CPP’s Ilocos-Cordillera Regional Committee.
The Tiamzons were granted temporary liberty from detention in 2016 to join peace talks with the government.
Baylosis, an NDF consultant in the peace talks, was arrested in January for alleged illegal possession of firearms and explosives, a charge he has disputed.
President Duterte had earlier ordered the arrest of the NDF consultants following the termination of the peace talks.