Court frees another NDF consultant in Bukidnon

From the Philippine News Agency (Aug 19): Court frees another NDF consultant in Bukidnon

The regional trial court in Bukidnon released the second consultant of the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Mindanao Friday afternoon, the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) announced here.

Pedro G. Codaste, 66, a.k.a “Gonyong,” was freed after posting a Php 100,000 bail past 1 p.m. Friday from his prison cell in the Malaybalay City Jail, in Bukidnon, southeast of Cagayan de Oro City.

From Malaybalay, Codaste went directly to the Office of the Provincial Governor in Misamis Oriental to pay a courtesy call to Governor Yevgeny Vincente Emano where he held a press conference with the members of the local press.

During the interview, Codaste said that he was happy that he was freed after six years of imprisonment and was looking forward to a fruitful peace negotiations with the government panel in Oslo, Norway next week.

He said that the NDF and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) panel would take up five major agenda during the peace talks.

The five major agenda are: affirmation of the Hague agreement; setting of the timetable for the peace talk; reconstruction of the identification of the communist rebels; proclamation of the general amnesty for all political detainees through the act of Congress; and the mode of the ceasefire and disarmament agreement.

After the five major agenda are taken up, the NDF-GRP panel would then proceed to the discussion of other particular issues on the social and economic concerns of the various strata of Philippine society.

Codaste expressed confidence that the peace negotiations with the government under the Duterte administration would succeed.

Codaste, the Secretary General of the North Central Mindanao Revolutionary Party Committee (NCMRPC), was arrested at a military checkpoint on the border of Agusan Del Sur and Compostela Valley in December 2010 on the strength of a warrant of arrest in murder and frustrated murder charges.

Codaste would spend his night at the Archbishop Palace in Cagayan De Oro City, from where he is scheduled to fly to Manila on Saturday morning to be escorted by PEPP officials to process his travel papers for Oslo, Norway.

Last Wednesday, Alfredo Mapano, a.k.a “Paris,” another NDF consultant, was released from the provincial jail in Misamis Oriental. Mapano, also the Secretary General of the NCMRPC during his arrest in 2009, flew to Manila at noon on Thursday.

Both Codaste and Mapano are among the 22 NDF consultants who would join the peace talks in Oslo, Norway on August 22. At least 18 NDF consultants have been released as of Friday.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=915595