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Elderly NDFP peace consultant arrested in Samar

Another National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant has been arrested and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has demanded his immediate release.

The CPP said Esteban Manuel was arrested last February 16 in Villareal town, Samar by the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) Joint Task Force Storm, along with another civilian.

“Ka Esteban holds official documents of identification under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG),” the CPP said.

The agreement, signed between the GRP and the NDFP in 1995, provides guarantees for negotiators, personnel and consultants of both parties against reprisals, including surveillance and arrests.

“We denounce the AFP and the Philippine National Police (PNP) for filing trumped up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives against Ka Esteban, who is around 70 years old,” the CPP said.

The CPP said claims of the military that a fragmentation grenade and a cal.45 pistol were seized from Esteban are false.

“All of these are planted evidences to charge him with an non-bailable crime and thus prolong his detention,” it added.

Manuel is the latest in a string of arrests of consultants and staff since GRP President Rodrigo Duterte abandoned its once fruitful peace negotiations with the NDFP in June 2017.

Vicente Ladlad, Rey Claro Casambre, Alfredo Mapano, Loida Magpatoc, and Adelberto Silva and Renante Gamara have been re-arrested since then.

Ferdinand Castillo had been arrested on Febuary 12, 2017 while the talks were still ongoing.

NDFP peace consultants Rafael Baylosis and Esterlita Suaybaguio were also separately arrested after the termination of the talks but were freed by trial courts due to lack of evidence on charges of illegal possession of guns and explosives.

Meanwhile, Randy Malayao, Randall Echanis, Eugenia Magpantay, Agaton Topacio, Julius Giron, Pedro Codaste, Antonio Cabanatan, Florenda Yap, Reynaldo Bocala and Rustico Tan were killed or have died in various military operations since talks broke down.

The CPP called on local and international human rights and humanitarian organizations, as well as peace advocates, to extend assistance to Manuel.

“He must be immediately afforded legal representation. We enjoin all democratic forces to close ranks and raise the demand for Ka Esteban to be immediately released,” it said.

The group added that Manuel’s arrest forms part of the Duterte regime’s campaign of terror and suppression against the people of Eastern Visayas it said has one of the highest number of human rights abuses since it was placed under military and police rule with the implementation of Duterte’s Memorandum Order No. 32 in 2018.

The CPP said cases of aerial bombing and shelling have risen in Eastern Visayas, including a growing number of communities that have been placed under military occupation and subjected to abuses.

“From 2020, at least 12 cases of indiscriminate firing have been recorded. The Filipino people must stand united and demand an immediate stop to this campaign of terror against the region,” the CPP said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

‘Poverty, lack of development, corruption nearly drove me to take up arms’—Pacquiao

Senator Manny Pacquiao revealed he may have been an armed rebel if he did not become a legendary boxing champion.

Citing his humble roots in the mountains of Mindanao, the presidential candidate said he himself experienced the abject poverty that drives many to take up arms against the Manila government.

“If I did not become a boxer, there was a big chance that I would be in the mountains bearing arms,” Pacquiao said in the Peace and the Presidentiables online forum by peace advocates and universities.

The world’s lone eight weight division champion said poverty and mal-development, driven by corruption in government, are the root causes of armed conflict in the country, problems he vowed to eliminate if he becomes president.

The senator said he will revive the peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and will make sure that agreements between both parties are respected and implemented.

“We should listen to them (rebels). There is solution to every problem. They ask nothing but development and food for everybody,” he said in Filipino.

Pacquiao said he is also open to honoring past agreements, such as free land distribution to poor farmers agreed and initialled by both parties in June 2017 before President Rodrigo Duterte cancelled formal talks.

The senator said that land grabbed from farmers and indigenous peoples by powerful and rich, particularly by those in government, must be returned.

“If I become president, I will not allow that to happen. Puputulin ko ang sungay ng mga ganid at mapagsamantala sa gubyerno,” he said. (I will cut the horns off the heads of the greedy and corrupt in government.)

Pacquiao also said he is not in favor of red-tagging activities by the government’s anti-insurgency arm, the National Task Force Against Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), especially against the innocent.

“NTF-ELCAC’s funds must instead be utilized for the genuine development of communities,” he added.

The presidential candidate also did not agree with the government’s designation of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army as terrorists as well as NTF-ELCAC’s statement that negotiating peace with the underground groups is naive.

“They are those who take up arms because of poverty and have seen they have very little chance of getting justice under this rotten system,” Pacquiao said.

The senator however declined to endorse the immediate release of NDFP peace consultants and other political prisoners as part of a confidence-building measure for the resumption of formal negotiations with the NDFP.

While acknowledging that many political prisoners may have been wrongfully jailed, he said he will instead endorse swift judicial procedures to allow the innocent to return to their families.

Responding to Pacquiao’s answers to questions on peace, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan chairperson Dr. Carol Araullo said the senator’s humble origins makes him credible in identifying poverty, lack of jobs and development, the poor’s political disempowerment, and unequal application of justice as the root causes of armed conflict.

“The senator failed to fully explain his stand on the NTF-ELCAC but he is right in saying its funds must be used for real community development. It is notable that he also mentioned that ordinary police officers and soldiers are just being used by abusive government officials,” Araullo noted.

Pacquiao is the first among the May 2022 presidential candidates who attended the series organized by the Citizen’s alliance for Just Peace in cooperation with the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, the Pilgrims for Peace, Sulong Peace and Waging Peace.

Tuesday’s online forum was supported by the La Sallian Justice and Peace Commission of Da La Salle University, Fr. Saturnino Urios University, the Silliman University Student Council,St. Scholastica’s College-Manila and the University of the Philippines. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

CPP still awaiting verification of Codaste’s death

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said it has yet to receive verified reports on the death of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Pedro Codaste in a military operation in Bukidnon last Friday.

“We are still awaiting verification of the reported death of…Pedro Codaste (Ka Gonyong), supposedly in an armed encounter between the AFP and an NPA unit in Impasug-ong, Bukidnon last January 21,” the CPP’s website said.

“We will issue a statement as soon as we receive additional information,” CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena added.

Codaste, alleged to be a top leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Mindanao, was reportedly killed in what the 16th Infantry Battalion said was a 30-minute gunfight in Barangay  Kalabugao.

A certain Ka Zandro was killed along with Codaste, the military claimed.

A known NPA stronghold, Impasug-ong was where NPA National Operations Command spokesperson Jorge Madlos (Ka Oris) was killed in an alleged military ambush in October 2021.

Peace consultant

Arrested in 2010 and jailed in Bukidnon for alleged murder and attempted murder, Codaste was among the 19 NDFP consultants released at the start of the Rodrigo Duterte government to participate in the resumption of formal peace negotiations in Oslo, Norway in August 2016.

He also attended the second and third formal rounds of negotiations in Oslo and in Rome, Italy in October 2016 and January 2017, respectively, as a member of the NDFP Negotiating Panel’s Reciprocal Working Committee on End of Hostilities and Disposition of Forces.

The NPA leader had apparently gone back underground after the Rome round when then Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza notified the NDFP of the government’s bid to cancel the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees that would supposedly protect peace negotiation participants from arrest  and harm.

President Duterte thereafter ordered the arrest of all NDFP peace negotiators while the military in Northern Mindanao issued a shoot-to-kill order against Codaste and others.

In May 2021, Codaste and 18 others were included in the government’s Anti-Terrorism Council list of so-called terrorists.

The CPP protested the government’s designation and called the 19, including Codaste, as “honorable revolutionaries who have served the cause of the Filipino people for national and social liberation all their lives.”

“Throughout the past decades, they have courageously stood side by side with the people and struggled against dictators and tyrants. They all have sacrificed personal ambition and selfish interests,” the CPP said.

“Unlike Duterte, these revolutionaries have only the clothes on their back to count as their wealth. They do not accumulate money from the government nor fleece the people with taxes,” the group added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

One last question I wanted to ask Jorge ‘Ka Oris’ Madlos

By Raymund B. Villanueva

(The author has been covering the peace process between the NDFP and the GRP and has interviewed Jorge ‘Ka Oris’ Madlos on several occasions. Here is the journalist’s look-back on one of his most respected sources.)

He was inside a swidden hut that Christmas night I first laid eyes on Mindanao’s legendary rebel leader. An electric bulb was casting a wan glow on a makeshift porch and Jorge Madlos was wearing a stubby flashlight on his forehead as he furiously tapped on his laptop, seemingly unaware of the frenzied atmosphere around him. It was the eve of the Communist Party of the Philippines’s (CPP) 42nd founding anniversary and the then National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)-Mindanao spokesperson was busy polishing the statement he was to issue the next day.

His comrades directed us to a nearby creek to wash up, noticing our pants and shoes were caked with drying mud, victims of several spills on rice paddies and mud puddles on the way to the New People’s Army (NPA) encampment on Mt. Diwata’s foothills. Finding our way back to his hut, Madlos, more famous as Ka Oris, was done typing, beaming a toothy smile and waiting to finally welcome the new arrivals from the city.

“Maligayang pagdating. Salamat sa pagpunta. Kumusta ang biyahe?” Oris asked, eager to hear what we had to say in return. (Welcome. Thank you for coming. How was your trip?) His interest was understandable; we have been told he had a direct hand in organizing the trips. He had done so in the many decades that he welcomed to NPA camps journalists and many other kinds of visitors.

He invited us to dinner, a surprisingly sumptuous fare of adobo and lechon on heaps of piping hot fragrant mountain rice. “Are these the ones being cooked in the barrios we passed by?” we asked. “No. What the masses are cooking tonight will be brought to the celebrations tomorrow. December 26 is their real holiday,” he said. “These adobo and lechon are gifts from local politicians,” he added, laughing. Oris however had fish stew, a healthier meal to manage his urination problems brought about by a spine infection.

It was getting late and Oris held back on asking the many questions he was also known for. Journalists from all over trooped to where they could get hold of him, but he was equally famous for quizzing them in turn. “Baka pagod na kayo. Maaga tayo bukas. Doon sa may mangga ang pwesto niyo,” he said, pointing to where our tents were being put up. (You may already be tired. We have an early day tomorrow. Your tents are being put up under that mango tree.)

We almost never got the chance to have Oris to ourselves again the next day. Along with the thousands of attendees who descended on an open field were Mindanaoan reporters and national and international journalists there to cover the biggest story of the day and interview one of the country’s media darlings. Even journalists who were known to be critical of the communists were invited and welcomed.

During the celebrations, we witnessed firsthand how Oris was one of the journalists’ most beloved sources, especially by Mindanaoan reporters. He had ordered special spots for us to be able to take good photos of the NPA parade. He issued us press passes and badges that were proudly worn the entire day. He made the press conference part of the day long celebrations, fielding the seemingly never-ending stream of questions with dashes of wry humor. He repeatedly thanked the journalists who came, easily identifying which parts of Mindanao or elsewhere in the world they were from or writing for. He handed out “certificates of attendance,” accepted with much jollity and, I suspect, are being kept to this day. A “class picture” with the journalists capped our day, with Oris at the center, looking much like a grandfatherly school principal among wards. I very much doubt any Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) general went as famously with the journalists as the diminutive guerilla did.

Hard-nosed journalists emerge satisfied with every interview session with Oris. He was obviously naturally intelligent, conversant in at least four languages. Questions designed to trap him were deftly turned around, such as, “You have been waging this war for decades, yet you have failed to win,” to which Oris replied, “The much stronger government and imperialists could not defeat us either.” A correspondent of an international news wire agency asked, “Will it not be more difficult for the movement at this time, given that President Aquino is popular?” “He is not popular in our areas of control,” was Oris’ riposte.

The AFP was furious at the brazenness of the CPP celebrations that day that, despite the existence of ceasefire declarations, it put up checkpoints on the roads leading out of the area to harass attendees on their way home. The local Philippine Army (PA) battalion commander was in a towering rage, sources said, especially when a politician’s mindless aide delivered his donation of lechon to the PA camp, instead of the intended NPA camp. “Mabuhi ang CPP! Mabuhi ang NPA!” the mayor’s written message on the lechon carton reportedly read.

At about three in the afternoon and while the celebrations were still on full blast, Oris granted us some time to ask him about the NDFP’s peace negotiations with the Benigno Aquino government. With the 15-minute interview over, he suggested we hitch a ride with other civilian attendees out of the area later that afternoon. “There will be other opportunities for us to talk. It is more important that you get home safe. Thank you for spending today with your friendly NPA,” he jestingly said. There, tired and preoccupied with everyone’s safety, Oris’ famous brand of humor sent us on our way home.

It took us another four years to get another chance to cover Ka Oris in a CPP anniversary celebration. This time, the AFP was more vociferous in preventing the thousands from attending CPP’s 46th anniversary celebrations. Even with local politicians and a congressman telling government soldiers that the mutual rebel and government-declared ceasefires allowed for another open CPP celebration, they delayed the attendees by hours. Revelations that the occasion would even be attended by a Malacanan Palace emissary for peace negotiations consultations were ignored. Many other journalists were also delayed.

As in 2011, I and some colleagues arrived at the venue on Christmas night precisely to avoid the hassle of passing through AFP checkpoints in broad daylight when they are known to be braver. We also hoped to spend more time with Oris alone before the frenzy sets in. When we arrived however, he was already busy welcoming the throng arriving with us, including a group of Catholic nuns. What he did not fail in doing was to ask how our trip was, insisting that we grab a bite and ensuring we have a place to sleep.

The rumpus the government soldiers caused prevented Oris from giving us time for an exclusive interview in the morning. What he did was to give a presser for the many journalists who arrived and answer all our questions as per usual. He also gave copies of the statement he read in the delayed program. Later, he managed to give Kodao an on-cam interview. When it was time for goodbyes, he made sure we would be safe in our travels, as was his wont.

Sometime in between those two coverage, we received a letter from Oris, saying it is time for that exclusive no-time-limit interview. I thought it would be in the same type of area and I packed lightly. It turned out that the venue was at a major NPA camp up high in the mountains. From one of the island’s major cities, it took me and my guide the entire day to travel by bus to a fairly large central Mindanao town and by motorcycle up more and taller mountains. When we ran out of roads and began seeing NPA fighters by the roadside, I thought we’ve reached our destination. I was then told we were just halfway up. What followed was a night-time climb up steep and narrow mountain trails, slogging through swamps and crossing burbling creeks, aided only by small flashlights. We reached camp at near two o’clock in the morning and there was Oris, waiting for us while boiling water to disinfect his urinary drainage bags (urobags).

“You made it!” he beamed, offering us the unique Mindanao NPA handshake. “How was your trip?” he asked, this time with a guffaw, seeing I was near collapse, tethering on my walking stick. Again, beside him, also beaming, was Alvin Luque, alias Ka Joaquin Jacinto, the activist who succeeded Oris as NDFP-Mindanao spokesperson. (Oris and Luque, both ill at the time of their respective deaths, were killed by government soldiers less than a year apart.)

The next morning, Oris gave us a tour of the camp where huge tents housed activists on week-long educational discussions. Other tents served as offices, kitchens and dining halls. All around were individual huts for camp regulars. No, there were no huts or tents that served as armory. He then invited us to conduct the interview, “Before the noisy insects start their concert.”

But the ever-curious Oris wanted something from us in return. He asked young-looking NPA fighters to observe as we set up our equipment. After the interview came his string of questions on which cameras, tripod, microphones, lights and other equipment would best survive their environment. He encouraged his comrades to ask questions on camera panning, tilting and tracking as well as visual composition he obviously already read up on. Months later, the rebels would be uploading videos of Oris issuing statements online.

It was brutally cold on our second night in the mountaintop NPA camp and I began shivering as soon as I tried to go to sleep. I wore all my shirts underneath my thin jacket to no avail. It did not help that my sleeping station was a hammock fashioned from rice sacks under a plastic sheet (tarapal). Past midnight, I felt hands lifting my malong and putting a soda bottle filled with warm water between my legs. It was Oris. Noticing I was woken, he whispered; “I can hear you shivering. This will warm you up.” It indeed did and I slept restfully until morning.

It was time for us to go back home the next day and we left with another special Oris quip: “You are welcome for the honor of visiting another NPA camp,” he said, his eyes twinkling.

It turned out that those were my only chances to personally interview Jorge Madlos. There have been two other CPP anniversaries I covered in Mindanao since. One was in Surigao del Norte 2015 and the biggest yet in Davao City in 2016 when even several Rodrigo Duterte government Cabinet members were in attendance. We were informed that Oris may attend both occasions, but the AFP was even more determined to get him, ongoing peace negotiations notwithstanding. He stayed out.

On October 29, 2021, the AFP killed the 73-year old icon of the revolution in the Philippines. His wife Maria Malaya said Oris was unarmed and was on his way to a medical treatment with an aide when waylaid by the soldiers. Possibly in spite, government soldiers cremated his remains a few days later without giving his family the chance to view his remains one last time. In a twisted way, this could be understood as their way of getting back at Oris even more for eluding them for more than five decades.

Jorge Madlos, Mindanao’s most successful rebel leader and one the Philippines’ most legendary communist cadres, is physically gone. But it would have been nice for me to meet him one last time and field the one question I had long wanted to ask: Did the warm water bottle come from his urobag disinfection ritual? #

Joma to Robredo: Localized peace talks just an intelligence operation

The scheme gives the military and the police the opportunity to bribe or kill those who make the mistake.

The next President of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) must first do away with the obstacles put up by the Rodrigo Duterte government before peace talks with the Left could resume, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said.

Asked to react to Vice President Leni Robredo’s statement in Cagayan de Oro that she prefers localized peace talks with the Communists, Sison said her proposal is merely a scheme to divide the revolutionary movement.

“The pretend peace talks aims to sow discord in the movement and an intelligence operation for the military and police to identify persons they can bribe or kill from those who make the mistake of agreeing to the scheme,” Sison said.

READ: CPP says no to ‘pretend talks’ with LGUs

ALSO READ: More revolutionary groups reject ‘localized talks’

“Localized peace talks are merely a part of the dirty tricks of US-designed armed counter revolution implemented for a long time already in the Philippines,” he added.

Presidential aspirant Robredo renewed calls for localized peace talks with communist rebels throughout the country as a step to forging an agreement with the NDFP, Rappler reported.

The way I see it, there is a need for localized peace talks. We can attain peace if we address the roots of the problem…(including) poverty and inequality,” Robredo said.  

But Sison said the next administration must resume the peace process from where the Duterte government terminated them and do away with Presidential Proclamations 360 and 370 that terminated formal peace negotiations and declared the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army (NPA) as so-called terrorists.

Sison added that the next government must also cease focused military operations against civilian communities alleged to be supporting the NPA, dismantle the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, and repeal the Anti-Terrorism Act, among other obstacles.

He said that the next government must reaffirm and agree to strengthen the GRP-NDFP Joint Agreement of Safety and Immunity Guarantees.

“The NDFP should also learn lessons from the fact that even if the peace talks had been held abroad since 1992, the Duterte regime has been able to use these to abduct and kill NDFP negotiating negotiators, consultants, resource persons and staff,” Sison said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Joma on removal of books from libraries: ‘Stupid book-burning fascists’

National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison slammed reports government intelligence agencies are actively asking universities to have his books removed from their libraries.

Following reports Isabela State University (ISU) turned 23 of his books over to the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) earlier this week, Sison said the move violates freedom of thought and belief as well as academic freedom.

“Those in power are stupid book-burning fascists,” Sison said of the decision of university president Ricmar Aquino to remove his books from ISU’s 11 campuses.

ISU photo.

Twenty-three of Sison’s books were removed from ISU’s libraries, including “Building People’s Power,” “Defeating Revisionism & Opportunism,” “Crisis Generates Resistance,” “Building Strength through Struggle” and “Continuing the Struggle for Liberation,” the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported Thursday.

ISU also turned over to the NICA were copies of Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP)-NDFP peace talks books, versions of which were published by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process across several administrations.

The move came three weeks after Kalinga State University (KSU) removed 11 GRP-NDFP peace talks books from its libraries.

READ: Groups slam school’s decision to turn over peace books to military

Administrators from both schools said their decisions were made to prevent their students from being influenced by Left-leaning ideology.

Reports indicate however government intelligence agencies are actively asking universities to remove Sison and NDFP books from their collections.

A source informed Kodao that NICA officials are visiting Nueva Ecija colleges and universities to undertake similar activities.

“NICA is visiting libraries of universities and colleges in some provinces to get rid of any books or references about NDFP and…by Joma Sison,” the source said.

“This is worse than during (Ferdinand Marcos’) martial law,” the source added.

Sison said the books’ removal from university libraries is a throwback from the Cold War and that the “military idiots” are blind to the fact that his and NDFP’s books are available online.

“They are afraid of ideas that advocate the attainment of national full national independence, people’s democracy, development through genuine land reform and national industrialization, a patriotic, scientific and mass-oriented culture and independent foreign policy,” Sison said.

“They are totally barbaric and ignorant of the fact that revolutionary ideas cannot be stopped from circulating through the internet in the Philippines and internationally,” he added.

Kodao’s efforts to interview officials of the government’s National Book Development Board (NBDB) failed. Higher Education commissioner and KSU Board of Regents chairperson Lilian de las Llagas also refused to reply to Kodao’s three-week old request for comment.

“[Books] are instrumental in the citizenry’s intellectual, technical and cultural development – the basic social foundation for the economic and social growth of the country,” Republic Act 8047, the law that created the NBDB, says. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

NDFP: Esperon, Parlade in Europe to set up death squads

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) expressed fears high ranking Rodrigo Duterte government officials are in Europe to hatch terrorist plots and set up assassination groups against Filipino activist groups.

In a statement, the NDFP Information Office in Utrecht, The Netherlands said National Security Council chairperson Hermogenes Esperon and his newly-appointed vice-chairperson Antonio Parlade Jr. in Milan, conducting meetings with former government soldiers and police officers who have resided in Italy.

“This is not the first time that Parlade came to Europe to undertake terrorist activities against progressive forces based in Europe. Last year, the Duterte regime through its NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict) traveled to several countries in Europe purportedly to set-up cells of the NTF-ELCAC,” the NDFP said.

The NDFP said these cells are aimed at undertaking surveillance and red-tagging activities against progressive compatriot organizations, foreign solidarity friends and entities, anti-Duterte individuals and personalities, especially open leaders of the NDFP and its peace panel.

Those who will be subjected to surveillance are possibly targets for assassination, the group added.

NDFP-supplied photo of newly-appointed National Security Council vice chairperson Antonio Parlade partying with OFWs in Milan, Italy. A check on the Facebook accounts of the persons identified in the screenshot did not show the photos or may have been already deleted.

Independent sources confirmed the two officials were in Milan and have partied with known Rodrigo Duterte supporters among Filipino migrant workers in the Northern Italian city where tens of thousands of Filipinos reside.

Parlade and Esperon’s trip was unannounced in the Philippines. The government’s top security officials have yet to respond to the NDFP’s allegations

Not the first time

The NDFP recalled at least two earlier circumstances when such plots were hatched and launched by the Philippine government against Europe-based revolutionaries and activists.

“Years ago, according to NDFP sources, the NDFP leaders based in Europe got hold of information that an assassination team has been formed in Milan and was ready to travel to the Netherlands to assassinate NDFP leaders,” the group said.

During the Joseph Estrada regime, a member of an assassination team the regime organized and sent to kill NDFP chief political consultant Prof. Jose Ma. Sison, came forward to expose the plan after it failed, and after the Dutch police confirmed the plan’s existence, it added.

The NDFP also alleged a similar plan to assassinate Prof. Sison came to the attention of the NDFP leaders last year and was similarly confirmed by the Dutch police.

The Dutch police Sison to take precautions, it said.

Compatriots, the NDFP member organization for migrant Filipinos, said the Philippine government’s newest attempts to set up death squads in Europe are likely to fail.

“Like earlier attempts of Parlade and Esperon to recruit OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) to the NTF-ELCAC and possibly set-up a death squad or assassination team in Europe, their terrorist and fascist plan is sure to fail and will be foiled by freedom and democracy-loving overseas Filipinos and European friends,” Compatriots said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

NDFP peace consultant Suaybaguio walks free

National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Esterlita Suaybaguio walked to freedom at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) offices at past 5 pm Friday afternoon, cleared of charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

With no available Quezon City barangay available to witness her release by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, the CHR agreed to be the venue of the process yesterday.

BJMP and CHR personnel complete the process to release NDFP peace consultant Esterlita Suaybagio last September 17. (Photy by Defend Jobs Philippines)

Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 219 judge Janet Abegos-Samar acquitted the women’s rights advocate of charges stemming from a search warrant issued by controversial QC executive judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert in 2019.

Suaybagio, alleged by the military as a high-ranking officer of the Communist Party of the Philippines, was arrested in an apartment building in Cubao, Quezon City early morning of August 26, 2019.

Suaybaguio told the court police officers pushed and pinned her to the sink after storming in, preventing her from viewing the commotion inside her apartment.

The activist said she was shocked to learn later that a police officer had allegedly found a 9MM firearm and a hand grenade inside her bag.

Suaybaguio’s acquittal was a triumph over government’s policy of trumped-up charges against activists, particularly NDFP peace consultants, her lawyers from the Public Interest Law Center (PILC) said.

“Her acquittal adds to the victory in a string of cases against activists which have been recently dismissed…We hope the dismissal of other fabricated charges (against other political prisoners) will follow,” the PILC said.

The law center noted similar warrants issued by Burgos-Villavert against journalist Lady Ann Salem and NDFP Negotiating Panel staff members Alexander and Winona Marie Birondo have been dismissed earlier.

Burgos-Villavert has been accused by rights defenders as a “warrant factory” after meeting with former police general Debold Sinas and subsequently issuing warrants used by the police to arrest activists.

The most controversial warrant issued by the judge was used to arrest women’s rights activist Reina Mae Nasino in 2020, who was then 7 months pregnant. Nasino gave birth while in detention to her child River who died weeks later. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

NDFP demands Loida Magpatoc’s release

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating Panel demanded the release of its peace consultant arrested by the military and the police in Quezon, Bukidnon on Wednesday, September 15.

NDFP Negotiating Panel interim chairperson Julie de Lima said Loida Magpatoc is a member of the NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reform and should be immune from arrest.

“[S]he is a member of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, by virtue of which she is protected by the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines)-NDFP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).  She should therefore be released,” de Lima told Kodao.

Magpatoc was reported arrested by a composite team of the 88th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, the Quezon Philippine National Police and the military’s intelligence units in Purok 3, Barangay Paitan in Quezon town.

An old warrant issued by Branch 7 of the Bayugan (Agusan del Sur) Regional Trial Court on September 3, 2001, was reportedly used for her arrest.

A Rappler report said the same warrant was used when Magpatoc was first arrested in July 2013.

The same report said the military alleged that Magpatoc is head of the New People’s Army’s Far South Mindanao Committee.

Last May 13, the GRP’s Anti-Terrorism Council named Magpatoc and 18 others as members of the Communist Party of the Philippines’ Central Committee.

Loida Magpatoc (right, wearing a black jacket) during the GRP-NDFP’s 3rd formal round of Negotiations in Rome, Italy in January 2017. (Kodao file photo)

Land reform and rural development expert

Magpatoc was among the NDFP peace consultants released in August 2016 by President Rodrigo Duterte to be able to participate in the resumption of formal peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP.

Then government chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III told Kodao they working to release Magpatoc and nine others through the JASIG.

Magpatoc was present during the negotiations’ third formal round in Rome, Italy in January 2017 when both parties agreed on free land distribution for poor farmers, a high point in the negotiations.

De Lima said Magpatoc is an expert on land reform and rural development who helped draft the NDFP’s version of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms with fellow peace consultant Randall Echanis and others.

Echanis was brutally murdered in August 2020 in Quezon City.

De Lima said that in the NDFP Negotiating Panel’s subcommittee on land reform and rural development, Magpatoc and Echanis were most active in advancing peasant rights and welfare.

“We call on the Filipino people to demand her immediate release. We call on all peace loving people’s to campaign for her freedom, together with all political prisoners,” de Lima said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Groups slam school’s decision to turn over peace books to military

Groups slammed the reported decision of a state university to turn over copies of Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace negotiation books to the military and the police.

Pilgrims for Peace, ACT for Peace and the Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP) said the decision by the Kalinga State University (KSU) was a move for the mis-education of students about the peace negotiations between the parties.

In a statement last Saturday, September 11, Pilgrims for Peace said it is deeply concerned about the decision of the KSU Board of Regents (BoR) to withdraw from its Bulanao Campus Library 11 books on the peace negotiations between the Manila government and the NDFP.

The books include the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHIHL) English-Filipino; CARHIHL English-Hiligaynon; CARHIHL English-Visaya; GRP-NDFP Declaration of Understanding; NDFP Declaration and Program of Action for the Rights, Protection, and Welfare of Children; and The GRP NDFP Peace Negotiations: Major Arguments and Joint Statements-September 1, 1980-June 2018.

Also included were The GRP-NDFP Peace Negotiations Major Written Agreements and Outstanding Issues; NDF Adherence to International Humanitarian Law; Letters to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the UN Secretary-General; NDFP Adherence to International Humanitarian Law: On Prisoners of War (POWs); two articles on The People’s Struggles for Just Peace; and The NDFP Reciprocal Worrying Committee (RWC) Respective on Social and Economic Reforms.

The books were published by the NDFP Nominated Section of the Joint Secretariat of the CARHRIHL Joint Monitoring Committee based at the Diocese of Cubao in Quezon City.

“[T]he university administration has practically surrendered its academic freedom to the state security agencies that have constantly undermined our people’s quest for a just and lasting peace,” the group said.

Pilgrims for Peace added KSU’s “dismaying” decision was blind allegiance to the “myopic anti-insurgency campaign” of the Rodrigo Duterte administration.

“As a result, these university officials are now [instruments] in the state’s efforts to vilify not only the NDFP but also those who fight for academic freedom, human rights, and just peace,” the group’s statement said, also signed by ACT for Peace and the SCMP.

The groups added that the school has become complicit in the vicious red-tagging campaigns against by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict that has led to extra-judicial killings, unjust searches and illegal arrests, and a host of other human rights violations.

The Manila Times reported last September 9 that the KSU-BoR has decided to withdraw the books from one of its libraries to “protect students from embracing ‘NDFP ideology.’

The report said the military has lauded the decision.

The peace advocates however urged university officials to rethink their decision and study the books.

The groups noted that CARHRIHL has been hailed by the European Parliament as a “landmark” agreement and an outstanding achievement of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, along with the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees.

“These materials are readily available online, with different sites hosting them, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Peacemaker website,” they added.

“We encourage them to study the peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP. Furthermore, study the roots of poverty and political unrest in the country,” the groups said.

Higher Education commissioner and KSU-BoR chairperson Lilian de las Llagas has yet to respond to Kodao’s request for comment.

Commission on Higher Education chairperson Prospero de Vera was involved as GRP Negotiating Panel adviser immediately prior to his appointment to his current position. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)