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February 2, 2018
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MANILA – Police have rearrested a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the first since President Rodrigo Duterte cancelled the peace talks last November.
Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) officers caught Rafael Baylosis in Aurora Boulevard corner Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City on Wednesday, the Philippine National Police said.
Arrested along with Baylosis was Guillermo Roque, an alleged New People’s Army (NPA) member. Police said they also confiscated two .45 pistols with 14 ammunition and two magazines.
NDFP legal counsel Edre Olalia said Baylosis was detained at the CIDG headquarters in Camp Crame in Quezon City.
NDFP Executive Committee member Luis Jalandoni said Baylosis’ arrest was illegal, citing their Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees with the government in 1995.
“President (Rodrigo) Duterte must be held accountable for this trampling upon a valid peace agreement that assures all consultants and those participating in peace negotiations immunity from surveillance, harassment, search, arrest, detention, prosecution and interrogation or any other similar punitive action,” Jalandoni said in a statement.
Both Baylosis and Roque should be released, Jalandoni said. President Duterte must not be allowed to “kill and destroy” the peace negotiations, he added.
But Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said the JASIG no longer holds water.
“Wala namang saysay ang JASIG dahil wala nang peace talks,” Roque told a press briefing on Thursday. “Kung may kaso or basehan para sa warrantless arrest, kailangang arestuhin.”
Baylosis was facing murder charges over the 1985 massacre in Inopacan, Leyte.
He and other NDFP consultants were granted bail in August 2016 to attend the peace talks in Norway.
But the peace talks were cancelled, and Duterte tagged the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the NPA, as terrorist organizations last December and ordered the mass arrest of NDFP consultants. (CNN Philippines)
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