THE Justice Department is seeking to throw communist leaders who were granted temporary liberty back in jail, after the government terminated peace talks they were supposed to join.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Sunday that he ordered the prosecutors handling the criminal cases against National Democratic Front (NDF) and Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) leaders to ask courts in Manila and Taguig City to revoke their bail and order them back to detention.
If they do not voluntarily follow the court’s order and violate the conditions set for their temporary release, the courts may order their arrest.
The DOJ had earlier moved for the provisional freedom of NDF consultants Benito Tiamzon, Adelberto Silva, Rafael Baylosis, Randall Echanis, Vicente Ladlad and Alan Jazmines for the scheduled peace talks in the Netherlands.
The Manila City RTC granted the motion and allowed Tiamzon, Silva, Baylosis, Echanis and Ladlad to post bail for their multiple murder cases so they could travel to the Netherlands for the informal peace talks and to Norway for the formal talks.
Jazmines, on the other hand, was granted provisional liberty by the Taguig RTC.
However, both courts have set conditions for their temporary release and participation in the peace talks.
These included their personal appearance before the courts trying their cases. The DOJ has noted that Tiamzon and Silva went into hiding when their bail was cancelled after the talks were aborted in November last year.
Baylosis was arrested in February on what he had alleged were trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. His bail for the firearms charge was set at P100,000.
Jazmines was forced to return to his detention cell at Camp Bagong Diwa after the canceled peace talks last year and after the government sought to declare more than 600 people, including rebel consultants, terrorists.
For the latest bail grant, the NDF consultants were supposed to be free only until the end of the informal talks, set for June 3 to 9 and June 22 to 28 in the Netherlands, and the succeeding formal negotiations in Oslo, Norway, slated for June 27 to 30. They would have to return to the country within three days after the talks, the DOJ said.
However, the peace talks were cancelled again, reportedly to allow a more thorough engagement with the public on the issue.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, meanwhile, said the government should pursue peace talks at the local level with communist rebels, and cut out any role for self-exiled CCP founding chairman Jose Maria Sison.
The situation of the communist rebels differ from place to place and localized negotiations are more practical, Lacson said on radio dzBB Sunday.
He added that coursing talks through Sison was impractical, since he had no control on the New People’s Army guerrillas on the ground.
In the House, Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano said he remained hopeful that peace talks would eventually push through, despite the latest termination.
“It is unfortunate that the talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Peoples Army-NDF have been stalled again and public rhetoric from both sides have started to fly instead. Such exchanges of statements further erode the trust and confidence of the stakeholders in the talks, especially the Filipino people,” he said.
“Nonetheless, I support the peace talks and urge the administration to still pursue it. I believe it is only through the peace table that real peace could be achieved. Military solutions alone cannot address the insurgency. This is something we must have already learned by now,” he said.