NDFP peace panel chairman Fidel Agcaoili (file photo by Kodao Productions)
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines said all 17 of its consultants who were released from prison in August are back in the country and “not in hiding.”
At the same time, NDFP peace negotiating panel chairman Fidel Agcaoili said the 17 “are ll protected form rearrest in accorance with the JASIG,” or the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, which grants negotiators, their consultants, staff and security personnel protection from arrest and prosecution for the duration of the talks.
Agcaoili said they are waiting for the formal notice from the government’s negotiating panel on the termination of the peace negotiations, which President Rodrigo Duterte announced Saturday, a day after he lifted government’s unilateral ceasefire.
On February 1, the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army lifted their own unilateral ceasefire, citing what they called Duterte’s unfulfilled promise to release close to 400 political prisoners through a general amnesty and the military’s continued violations of the government ceasefire.
Fighting has since resumed between government forces and the communist rebels.
On Sunday, Duterte ordered the 17 NDFP consultants rearrested once they return from abroad. Duterte, who used to describe himself as a “leftist” and “socialist,” took to calling the communist rebels “terrorists.”
But Agcaoili said the consultants had returned to the Philippines on January 31 after attending the third round of formal talks in Rome from January 19 to 25.
“These consultants have been put under the effective jurisdiction of (government) courts because they were released only on bail and only for a six-month period,” he noted. “They have been required to secure court permission every time they went abroad to participate in the last three rounds of talks.”
“Their bail renewal is due this month and, as reflected in the Rome Joint Statement of 25 January 2017, both their lawyers and the (government) have agreed to cooperate in this regard,” he added.
http://interaksyon.com/article/136869/consultants-in-ph-protected-from-rearrest---ndfp
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