Leopoldo Caloza (Karapatan photo)
Police served a warrant of arrest for murder on a communist rebel leader already serving time at the National Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City after being convicted, also for murder, by a Pasig trial court late last year.
Chief Superintendent Roel Obusan, director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said the warrant was served on Leopoldo Caloza, 57, on Tuesday by CIDG agents and Armed Forces personnel.
Obusan said Caloza remains on the Philippine National Police’s “Most Wanted” list with a bounty of P2.9 million for his arrest.
According to human rights group Karapatan, Caloza, described as a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, which represents the communist revolutionary movement in peace talks with government, was captured in 2006.
He was originally slapped with 22 criminal charges but was cleared of all but one, for which he and another political prisoner, Emeterio Antalan, were found guilty on September 15 last year.
No details were available on the nature of the crime covered by Tuesday’s warrant.
But it was not the first served on Caloza while already in detention. A month before this, Karapatan said, Caloza was served two more warrants of arrest, one for a murder he allegedly committed in 1994, and for attempted murder in 2005.
Karapatan maintains the charges against Caloza are “trumped up.”
Caloza is among the jailed NDFP consultants the rebels have urged the Duterte government to release ahead of the scheduled resumption of formal peace negotiations on August 20.
http://interaksyon.com/article/131115/alleged-rebel-leader-arrested-while-serving-time-in-bilibid
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