By Kristine Joy V. Patag
Reporter

THE OFFICE of the Solicitor General (OSG) will seek the arrest and cancelation of bail bonds of communist leaders, following the government’s cancelation of back-channel peace negotiations.

Solicitor General Jose C. Calida, in his official account on social media platform Twitter, said yesterday the OSG “will ask the courts to cancel all bail bonds of [National Democratic Front (NDF)] consultants, order their arrest, and recommit them to their detention facilities.”

OSG in a statement also yesterday said Mr. Calida “is currently on official travel,” but confirmed that he had “instructed his office to ask the court for the cancellation of the bail bonds of the NDF consultants.”

“The conditional release granted them by the courts are for the sole purpose of the formal peace negotiations. The conditions are based on the Supreme Court Resolution dated 2 August 2016, and not based on JASIG,” lawyer and OSG spokesperson Erik Dy said, pertaining to the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees between the government and the NDF.

JASIG is an agreement on immunity entered into by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the NDF on Feb. 24, 1995, during the Ramos administration.

“The conditions provide that should the formal peace negotiations cease or fail, their bond shall be deemed automatically cancelled,” Mr. Dy added.

The government canceled back-channel peace talks following the continued attacks on government forces for which communist rebels have claimed responsibility. As recently as Wednesday, July 19, members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) engaged rebels of the New People’s Army (NPA) in an encounter in North Cotabato province.

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto C. Abella, for his part, said on Wednesday: “President (Rodrigo R.) Duterte stressed that the Reds really need to stop engaging the military in Mindanao if they want to continue the peace negotiations, adding that the government has always dealt with the communist rebels in good faith.”

For her part, Christina Palabay, secretary-general of left-leaning group Karapatan, said the OSG’s move “will be blatantly violating the (JASIG) as among the agreements reaffirmed by the (GRP) if it pushes through with (the) rearrest of the NDFP consultants.”

But according to Mr. Calida, the SC decision “supersedes the defunct 1995 JASIG agreement” and rendered the JASIG “moot and academic.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Thursday questioned the communist rebels’ sincerity in pursuing peace.

Col. Edgard A. Arevalo, AFP Public Affairs Office spokesperson, said Wednesday’s encounter and other recent incidents “are indicators of the New People’s Army’s propensity to take advantage of crucial situations like this in order for them to perpetuate their ends.”

“Indeed it is a futile effort to continue talk peace with a group like CPP-NPA-NDF whose members continue to bleed money from the people and senselessly kill our soldiers (who) defend and protect our people,” Mr. Arevalo also said, adding:

“They have never been sincere in talking peace with government. Clearly, the NPA (has) no intention to genuinely pursue peace negotiations but merely to buy time to consolidate to recruit and to beef up their ranks.” — with Jil Danielle M. Caro

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