Duterte tells DOJ to ask courts to cancel bail of Tiamzons, other NDF consultants

From GMA News (Feb 7): Duterte tells DOJ to ask courts to cancel bail of Tiamzons, other NDF consultants

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the Department of Justice to ask the courts to cancel the bail of National Democratic Front consultants, who were released despite the charges against them so they could join the recently scuttled peace negotiations.

Among the NDF consultants who have been released on bail because of the peace negotiations were Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, who are facing multiple murder and kidnapping charges before the Manila and Quezon City regional trial courts.

"As informed by Office of the [Executive Secretary] early this morning, the rearrest order of the panel who were previously under detention and provisionally released to join the peace talks will be issued by the courts... So the DOJ will be the one to invoke the court to cancel bail," presidential spokesman Secretary Ernesto Abella said.

NDF consultants started getting released in August 2016 to join the peace talks between the government and the communists rebels.

On Tuesday afternoon, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza sent a notice to CPP founder Jose Maria Sison and NDF peace panel chairperson Fidel Agcaoili that Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees for the consultants of the peace talks had been cancelled.

The Tiamzons were arrested only in 2014, exactly a week before the NPA marked its 45th anniversary on March 29 that year.

They are facing multiple murder charges before the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) over the deaths of several people whose remains were believed to have dumped in the mass grave unearthed in Leyte in 2006.

The Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) branch 32 earlier ordered the temporary release of the couple and set the bail at P100,000.

The Tiamzons are also facing kidnapping and serious illegal detention cases before Quezon City RTC Branch 81. The charges stemmed from a 1988 case where four soldiers were held captive by the CPP-NPA for about two months.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/598666/news/nation/duterte-tells-doj-to-ask-courts-to-cancel-bail-of-tiamzons-other-ndf-consultants