By LUIS G. JALANDONI
Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel
The Arroyo regime is condemnable for letting the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Philippine National Police fabricate the false charge of killing a journalist against Prof. Jose Maria Sison, NDFP Chief Political Consultant, and Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal, and offer the reward of 10 million and 5 million pesos respectively for information leading to their arrest.
There are two serious points manifested by the fabrication of the false charge:
First, the Arroyo regime has no interest whatsoever in going after its own military and police agents responsible for extrajudicial killings but it is obsessed with covering up their crimes by scapegoating revolutionary leaders and misappropriating public funds for the purpose.
Second, the regime has no interest in resuming the formal talks in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations because so far it has refused to comply with the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).
Up to now, there is no serious investigation of military and police officers involved in the extrajudicial killing of NDFP consultant Sotero Llamas and the enforced disappearances of NDFP consultants, their families and staffers, including Leo Velasco, Prudencio Calubid, his wife Celina Palma and companions Gloria Soco and Ariel Beloy, Rogelio Calubad and his son Gabriel, Leopoldo Ancheta and Philip Limjoco.
NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee for Socio-Economic Reforms (RWC-SER) Member Randall Echanis, NDFP consultants Elizabeth Principe, Angie Ipong, and Glicerio Pernia remain detained on false charges.
False charges continue to be invented and used against NDFP panelists like myself and Julieta de Lima – Sison and Chief Political Consultant Prof. Jose Maria Sison, Political Consultant Vicente Ladlad and RWC-SER Member Rafael Baylosis.
The Arroyo regime has not learned its lesson from its failure to put away Prof. Sison with the false charge of inciting the murder of the military agents Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara. It mindlessly continues to fabricate false charges against him even after he has won an internationally resounding legal victory against the aforesaid false charge.
