DOJ seeks return of NDF, CPP leaders to jail after botched ‘Red October’

November 27, 2018

The Department of Justice ( DOJ) has asked regional trial courts to order consultants and leaders of the National Democratic Front and Communist Party of the Philippines who were granted temporary liberty to join in the peace talks between the government and communist rebels to return to jail.

The filing of the motions were made after the communist groups were tagged by the Armed Forces of the Philippines of involvement in an alleged plot to oust President Rodrigo Duterte from office last month dubbed as "Red October."

Prosecutor General Richard Anthony Fadullon, head of the DOJ's National Prosecution Service, said Tuesday government prosecutors have recently filed motions before the Manila and Taguig RTCs for the cancellation of bail grant earlier granted to NDF and CPP leaders who are facing several criminal cases.

"Our prosecutors have already filed motions in various courts for the cancellation of bail and issuance of warrants for their arrest," Fadullon said.

If the motions of the DOJ are granted, the NDF and CPP leaders would have to return to their respective detention cells. If not, the courts may have them arrested.

The DOJ had moved for the provisional freedom of NDF consultants Benito Tiamzon, Adelberto Silva, Rafael Baylosis, Randall Echanis, Vicente Ladlad and Alan Jazmines for the peace talks in 2016.

The Manila RTC allowed Tiamzon, Silva, Baylosis, Echanis and Ladlad to post bail for their multiple murder cases to be able to travel to the Netherlands for the informal peace talks and to Norway for the formal talks.

Ladlad was nabbed earlier this month in Quezon City for alleged illegal possession of firearms and is detained again at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

The DOJ said Tiamzon and Silva went into hiding when their bail was cancelled after talks were aborted in November 2017 last year.

Baylosis was arrested in February on what he had alleged were trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. His bail for the firearms charge was set at P100,000.

The NDF consultants were supposed to be free only until the end of the informal talks, set for June 3 to 9 and June 22 to 28 in the Netherlands, and the succeeding formal negotiations in Oslo, Norway, slated for June 27 to 30. They would have to return to the country within three days after the talks, the DOJ said. DMS