A day after the release of Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, high-ranking leaders of the National Democratic Front (NDF), the group's legal consultant said it was important to remember sick and elderly political detainees who remain behind bars.
Atty. Edre Olalia, in a message to reporters on Saturday, said, "Even as we deservingly celebrate and are overjoyed by the Amazing Race-like successful campaign for the release of most of the NDF consultants so that they can participate in the formal peace negotiations, we do not forget hundreds more left behind..."
Olalia, who is in Oslo for the August 22 resumption of the peace talks between the Philippine government and the NDF, cited "the sick, the elderly, our mothers, daughters, sisters amd wives, those practically forgotten by the years, and all the rest who should not be behind bars in the first place."
"We remember the likes of Eduardo Serrano who should be free now had he not died of serious illness while in custody. These are the people the released political prisoners will fight for. These are our clients we continue to fight for," said Olalia.
The NDF is the political wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
Benito and Wilma are chairman and secretary general respectively of the CPP-New People's Army (CPP-NPA).
They are set to fly to Oslo for negotiations aimed at ending one of Asia's longest insurgencies.
Ceasefire
On the day of the Tiamzon couple's release, communist guerrillas declared a seven-day truce from Sunday to bolster the upcoming peace talks that will be hosted by Norway.
"We hope that this ceasefire declaration will be reciprocated by the (government) as a show of all-out determination to move forward with peace negotiations," the CPP said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Philippine government on Saturday announced that it is reimposing its unilateral ceasefire with the CPP-NPA ahead of the resumption of the peace talks with the communist rebels.
When he delivered his first State of the Nation Address last month, Duterte declared a unilateral ceasefire but ended it just five days later when a rebel ambush killed a government militia member and wounded four others.
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza said the ceasefire will start at 12:01 a.m. of August 21 (Sunday).
The government estimates the 47-year-old rebellion has claimed 30,000 lives.
Norway has acted as an intermediary in the talks.
Duterte's predecessor, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, had ended negotiations with the rebels in 2013 after rejecting the communists' demand that he free all imprisoned guerrillas.
It is estimated that around 550 guerrillas are still detained by the government.
The rebel army is believed to have fewer than 4,000 gunmen left, down from a peak of 26,000 in the 1980s, when a bloodless "People Power" revolt ended the 20-year dictatorship of the late president Ferdinand Marcos.
Meanwhile, hours after the release of the Tiamzon couple on Friday, police said they had arrested another senior rebel leader, Amelia Pond, in the central city of Cebu.
Pond will stand trial for two murders as well as attempted murder, a police statement said.
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/578342/news/nation/ndf-legal-consultant-do-not-forget-sick-elderly-political-detainees
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