RPA leader’s detention uncertain

From the Visayan Daily Star (Jun 14): RPA leader’s detention uncertain

The period of detention Marlon de los Santos, the arrested leader of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental is still uncertain, Supt. Victorino Romanillos, San Carlos police chief, said yesterday.

Romanillos said De los Santos has been given 10 days to submit his counter-affidavits to the charges-filed against him for illegal possession of firearms.

The recent raid on the house of de los Santos in Brgy. 2, San Carlos City, by the Regional Special Operations Group of the Police Regional Office 6, had yielded an M-16 assault rifle, a carbine and a .45 caliber pistol, with magazines of assorted ammunition, police records showed.

De los Santos used to be the RPA-ABB commander in the 1st district of Negros Occidental. He is now the secretary of the KAPATIRAN para sa Progresong Panlipunan (Brotherhood for Social Progress), that used to be the RPA-ABB.

Romanillos said de los Santos is now in jail, pending resolution of the complaints filed against.

Abang Lingkod party-list Rep. Stephen Paduano called for an immediate investigation by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process, Armed Forces of the Philippines and National Police on the arrest of de los Santos, stressing that his apprehension and confiscation of firearms from his possession, which already profiled by the OPPAP is a violation of the peace agreement.

The signing of closure agreement between the RPM-RPA-ABB Tabara Paduano Group and government by President Benigno Aquino III is still in limbo almost 14 years after the breakaway rebel group entered into peace talks with the government.

http://www.visayandailystar.com/2014/June/14/topstory9.htm