NDFP Hits Government’s 'Wanted List'
Calling it the “worst kind of treachery,
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) negotiator Luis
Jalandoni condemned the Justice Department’s “wanted list”, which included
all who were involved in the government’s peace negotiations with the NDF,
and covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).
BY ACE ALEGRE
Bulatlat
BAGUIO CITY – What
used to be “safety passes” are now being used as “warrants” for illegal
arrest.
National Democratic
Front of the Philippines Chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni condemned the
Justice Department’s “wanted list” which included all who were involved in
the government’s peace negotiations with the NDF, and covered by the Joint
Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).
Among those charged
with rebellion and included in the list were NDFP negotiators,
consultants, staffers, and even non-NDFP personnel who volunteered their
services as consultants, committee members, and staffers. These include
members and staff of the Joint Secretariat for the Joint Monitoring
Committee of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and
International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).
In a March 16
statement, Jalandoni said: “In a most reprehensible act of bad
faith, government has put all those who were duly covered with safety and
immunity guarantees on the wanted list, to be charged with rebellion and
to be hunted down like criminals.”
The JASIG was signed
by the NDFP and GRP on February 24, 1995, and in effect provides safety
and immunity guarantees to all those identified to be involved in the
peace negotiations.
Jalandoni said that
the Arroyo administration had turned the JASIG from “a solemn and binding
peace agreement into an instrument of fascist repression.”
Jalandoni said that
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales violates the right to due process with the
setting up of a “rogues gallery”, and putting up bounties for as much as
P10 million per person.
Such moves also
threaten the GRP-NDF peace negotiations which is being supported and
funded by the Royal Norwegian Government, Jalandoni said. “The Arroyo
regime must be vigorously condemned for the worst kind of treachery,” he
said. Bulatlat
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