The subpoena for a kidnapping complaint issued against Luis Jalandoni, the chief peace negotiator of communist rebels, could scuttle any chances of resuming negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front, a lawyer warned.
NDF legal consultant Edre Olalia called the inclusion of
Jalandoni in the complaint filed over the capture of four policemen by the New
People’s Army in Mindanao last year
"treacherous."
Olalia warned that the criminal complaint and subpoena
against Jalandoni might "seriously prejudice any potential resurrection of
the peace negotiations under the present administration."
As chairman of the NDF peace negotiating panel, Jalandoni
has often helped facilitate the release of government personnel captured by the
NPA, which Olalia explained was within the NDF’s "legitimate exercise of
its rights and duties under international humanitarian law as a national
liberation movement."
On July 10 last year, rebels captured Police Officer 3 Vic
Calubag, PO1s Rey O’Niel Morales, Edito Roquino Jr. and Joen Zabala during a
raid on the police station of Alegria town, Surigao del Norte. The four were
released on July 29 and turned over to emissaries and government officials,
among them Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II.
Subsequently, police filed a complaint against Jalandoni,
NDF Mindanao spokesman Jorge Madlos and 32 others for kidnapping with serious
illegal detention and violation of Republic Act 9851, which criminalizes
violations of international humanitarian law and “other crimes against
humanity.” The complaint alleged that the rebels who seized the policemen “take
direct orders from Luis G. Jalandoni and Jorge Madlos.”
The Surigao del Norte provincial prosecutor’s office,
finding probable cause, issued the subpoena, a copy of which was dropped last
week in the mailbox of the home of a close relative of Jalandoni in Bel-Air,
Makati City last week “with no people” and “not registered mail,” a source
close to the family said.
This prompted immediate condemnation from Jose Ma. Sison,
Communist Party of the Philippines founder and NDF chief political consultant,
who demanded that “the Aquino regime should respect the JASIG (Joint Agreement
on Safety and Immunity Guarantees) and allow the safe passage of Jalandoni to
his negotiating post and office in The Netherlands."
Jalandoni is a naturalized Dutch citizen and lives in Utrecht
Olalia also questioned the "deliberate delay" in
the service of the subpoena, which he said "smacks of bad faith, is
anomalous and legally effective."
He added that the complaint against Jalandoni “could not
prosper on factual and legal grounds.”
Aside from this, he said the complaint violates the
bilateral JASIG, which protects negotiators of both parties, their security and
staff, from nuisance or harassment suits.
Formal peace negotiations between the government and the NDF
stalled in April 2013.
In October last year, a government delegation met with the
NDF in the Netherlands
In a report by Bulatlat.com, Jalandoni was quoted as saying
that in December 2014, a draft agreement on the timetable for the discussions
and agreements on both the regular and special tracks of the negotiations was
crafted.
“Unfortunately, the Mamasapano fiasco and the resultant
backlash on the GPH-MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) peace process, in
general, and the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, in particular, have also
adversely affected the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations,” Jalandoni said in the
report.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/111753/kidnap-raps-vs-ndfs-jalandoni-could-scuttle-chances-for-peace-talks-resumption---lawyer
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