SolGen to ask courts to order arrest of NDFP consultants

The government will ask the courts to order the arrest of consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines who are facing criminal charges following the cancellation of the backchannel talks with the communist rebels.

Solicitor General Jose Calida made the announcement on Thursday, saying his office will file a motion in court seeking to "cancel all bail bonds of NDFP consultants, order their arrest, and recommit them to their detention facilities."

OSG will ask the courts to cancel all bail bonds of NDFP Consultants, order their arrest, and recommit them to their detention facilities. https://t.co/DvFcUyAc6V

— SolGen Jose C Calida (@SolGenCalida) July 20, 2017

The legal counsel of the NDF said the Calida's action would only worsen the state of the bogged down peace process between the government and the communist movement.

"This is another unfortunate knee-jerk hardball reaction that does not solve but even aggravates and complicates the situation," said lawyer Edre Olalia in a statement.

"It is also precipitate as the peace negotiations have not been terminated in accordance with a solemn process agreed upon by the Parties," he added.

Olalia said Calida's move was "coercive even as it is out of sync with the assurances and pronouncements of the GRP Panel that the present impasse is temporary and transitory and that the agreements as to safety and immunities stand, guarantees which apply to both sides."

"Who is calling the shots here? Does the GRP really want to go to a point of no return and revert to the militarist approach that ultimately serves the few elite and preserves an unjust status quo?" Olalia said.

Cristina Palabay, the secretary-general of the human rights group Karapatan, said Calida would be violating the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees if he continued with his plan.

"OSG will be blatantly violating JASIG as among the agreements reaffirmed by GRP, if it pushes thru w rearrest of NDFP consultants. It is among the ways by which the peace process is continuously undermined by the GRP," Palabay said.

Calida's move came a day after Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza said the backchannel negotiations, which would have taken place in Europe in the coming days, were called off after the New People’s Army attacked a Presidential Security Group (PSG) convoy in Arakan, Cotabato.

Four presidential guards were wounded in the ensuing firefight.

An unidentified civilian was killed in the incident, while an asset of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group identified as Rogelio Mago Genon was abducted.

Calida had said the temporary freedom granted by the courts to NDFP consultants was subject to various conditions, including automatic cancellation of the bail once the peace negotiation is terminated.

“[T]hey can now be arrested and recommitted to their respective detention facilities,” he said last February when Duterte temporarily halted the negotiations when soldiers were killed in an ambush that took place after the insurgents terminated a self-imposed ceasefire.

Among the NDFP consultants who have been released on bail for the purpose of 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. —LBG/KVD/NB, GMA News