NDF chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni and his wife Coni Ledesma during a forum in Quezon City earlier this year. (InterAksyon.com file by Tricia Aquino)
The chief peace negotiator of communist rebels has been subpoenaed and ordered to respond to a criminal complaint filed against him over the capture of four policemen in
The complaint and subpoena against NDF peace panel chairman
Luis Jalandoni immediately drew accusations of “harassment” from Jose Ma.
Sison, Communist Party of the Philippines founder and chief political
consultant of the NDF panel and a demand 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
The JASIG is supposed to ensure mutual protection from
arrest and prosecution for negotiators, seurity details and peace panel staff
of both parties. It has become a major bone of contention in the stalled peace
talks after the NDF accused the government of arresting and detaining several
"peace consultants" it insists are covered by the agreement but who
authorities maintain are rebel leaders and personalities who are legitimate
targets of operations.
The subpoena, a copy of which was obtained by
InterAksyon.com, against Jalandoni, Jorge Madlos, Mindanao spokesman of the NDF
and 32 others, several identified only through aliases and 15 others only as
“John Doe,” was issued January 28 by Surigao del Norte assistant provincial
prosecutor Irwin Ariel D. Miel after the Criminal Investigation and Detection
Group in the province filed a complaint 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 stems from the capture on July 10, 2014 of
Police Officer 3 Vic Calubag, PO1s Rey O’Niel Morales, Edito Roquino Jr. and
Joen Zabala by the New People’s Army during a rebel raid on the police station
of Alegria town.
The four were released and subsequently turned over to
Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II on July 29.
Sources close to the Jalandoni family confirmed that the
subpoena had been dropped in the mailbox of the home of a relative in Bel-Air, Makati City
A copy of the letter to Miel from Chief Inspector Napoleon
Pablo Duquez, commander of Special Investigation Task Group Alegria, claimed
the rebels who captured the policemen “take direct orders from Luis G.
Jalandoni and Jorge Madlos.”
Sison, in a statement issued Wednesday, noted that as chief
NDF negotiator, Jalandoni has helped facilitate “the safe and orderly release
of personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National
Police in the custody of the NPA as prisoners of war,” including the four
policemen.
“The Aquino regime is the most malicious of all
regimes by using its representatives (like DILG Secretary Mar Roxas and Nani
Braganza) to seek the release of the aforesaid policemen with the help of
Jalandoni on humanitarian grounds and now hurling against him false charges of
common crimes as aforementioned,” Sison said.
In fact, he added, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and
presidential peace adviser Teresita Deles were with Roxas during the release of
the four policemen.
“It is reprehensible that the Aquino regime is acting
viciously and maliciously by violating the safety and immunity guarantees that
protect Luis Jalandoni and by misrepresenting as a crime the facilitation done
by Jalandoni to help realize the humanitarian act and goodwill measure of the
NDFP in causing the release of the four policemen and seeking to improve the
atmosphere for the resumption of formal talks in the GPH-NDFP peace
negotiations,” Sison said.
He also called it “unfortunate that the Aquino regime is
making a vicious and malicious attack on the NDFP and the person of Jalandoni
exactly at a time that he and I have just recommended to the NDFP Executive
Committee to give permission to the NDFP Negotiating Panel to undertake
exploratory talks prior to formal talks, despite the recent outburst of Aquino
against the NDFP and the undersigned.”
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/111674/ndf-chief-negotiator-subpoenaed-on-kidnap-raps-sison-calls-complaint-harassment
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