THE government will ask the courts to order the arrest and detention of National Democratic Front leaders and members after President Rodrigo Duterte called off backchannel talks because of renewed attacks by communist rebels, including one in which members of the President’s security detail were wounded.
Solicitor General Jose Calida said his office would ask the courts to cancel all bail bonds of NDF consultants, order their arrest and detention.
The chief state lawyer revealed that his office would now ask the Supreme Court and several regional trial courts handling the cases against the communist leaders to recall the bail grant earlier given to them for their participation in the peace talks in Norway last year, including spouses Benito and Wilma Tiamzon.
Calida said they would also ask the RTCs to re-issue commitment orders on communist leaders who are standing trial for various criminal cases.
Earlier, the government canceled backchannel talks set later this month in Europe following the attack of suspected NPA rebels in North Cotabato last Wednesday that wounded five members of the Presidential Security Group.
Last May, President Duterte suspended formal peace talks after both sides failed to resolve a dispute over the Communist Party of the Philippines’ order for the NPA to step up attacks against the government to protest Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao to deal with a terrorist attack on Marawi City.
It was the OSG that sought temporary liberty for the Tiamzons and 18 other jailed NDF consultants last year so they could participate in peace talks between the communist rebels and the government.
Calida said that when the Supreme Court granted bail to them in its resolution in August last year, it had set specific conditions.
“One of the conditions is that once their participation ceases or the peace negotiations are terminated, their respective bonds shall be deemed automatically canceled,” he said.
“Since the government has already canceled the backchannel talks, the NDF consultants’ provisional liberty automatically ceased hence, they can now be arrested and recommitted to their respective detention facilities,” Calida said.
Since the peace talks are suspended, the NDF consultants should now surrender, he said.
Edre Olalia, lawyer of the NDF consultants, lamented the development, saying the OSG move was “another unfortunate knee-jerk hardball reaction that does not solve but aggravates the situation.”
Tinay Palabay of militant group Karapatan also assailed the government’s move.
“OSG will be blatantly violating JASIG [Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantee] as among the agreements reaffirmed by government if it pushes through with rearrest of NDF consultants. It is among the ways by which the peace process is continuously undermined by the government,” she said in a statement.
Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Maria Sison said talking peace with Duterte was unnecessary because of the President’s “obsession with martial law and mass murder.”
Sison also accused government forces of staging an “Enrile-type ambush” to justify the government’s break against communists, referring to former Defense secretary Juan Ponce Enrile, who staged a fake ambush to justify martial law under President Ferdinand Marcos.
“What is the PSG van doing in Arakan, Cotabato? To make provocations or to stage an Enrile-type ambush on the eve of the martial law proclamation by Marcos in 1972?” he said.
In a recent statement, the CPP urged their armed wing, the NPA to continue to strengthen itself nationwide by “carrying out armed counter-actions and offensives across the country” in opposition to Duterte’s plan to extend martial law in Mindanao up to Dec. 31, saying it will lead to more human rights abuses.
In a statement on Thursday, the CPP accused Duterte of bullying the NDF to bow to his terms of surrender.
“By cancelling the scheduled talks with the NDF, President Duterte is showing he no longer has need for peace negotiations with the NDF amid waging a triple war of death and destruction under its US-supported martial law rule,” the CPP said.
A spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Col. Edgard Arevalo, welcomed the President’s decision to call off talks with the communists.
“They have never been sincere in talking peace with government. Clearly the NPA has no intention to genuinely pursue peace negotiations but merely to buy time to consolidate, to recruit, and to beef up their ranks,” he said.
But the presidential adviser on the peace process, Jesus Dureza, said he remained confident that the cancellation of backchannel talks was just a “temporary hitch” that could still be resolved.
“If we liken the negotiations to a light bulb, it won’t be completely switched off. We will only be dimming [the light] so we could turn it brighter at some future time,” he said.
Dureza, however, noted that communist negotiators in Oslo lack the full authority over their forces on the ground, citing information from Sison.
“Joma said that in an interview. Do not think that we have full control over our forces. We also deal with them,” Dureza said, quoting Sison.
The leftist group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan said peace talks should continue so that fundamental socio-economic reforms could be carried out.
“The fighting is not being carried out by one side alone. The AFP, under martial law, has carried out military campaigns against communities not even related to the conflict in Marawi,” Bayan said in a statement. With Sandy Araneta