Release all political prisoners, Karapatan dares Malacanang

“We have heard this line before,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said in reaction to Malacanang’s declaration of openness to talk peace with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). “If and when Malacanang releases peace consultants of the NDFP and withdraw all trumped-up criminal charges against them, then maybe we can believe it’s more than just a press release,” Palabay said. 
 

“We have heard this line before,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said in reaction to Malacanang’s declaration of openness to talk peace with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). “If and when Malacanang releases peace consultants of the NDFP and withdraw all trumped-up criminal charges against them, then maybe we can believe it’s more than just a press release,” Palabay said. 
 
 
“During the BS Aquino presidency, his office has churned out too many press releases on its purported openness to talk peace. But nothing significant came out of it. Worst, more NDFP consultants were illegally arrested and falsely charged with criminal cases using professional witnesses and planted evidence,” Palabay said. It was in 2011 when the last formal peace talks happened in Norway.  
There are now 17 imprisoned peace consultants, 11 of them were arrested under the BS Aquino government.
“BS Aquino and the military concoct unbelievable cases, come up with lying witnesses, and even invent evidence to keep NDFP consultants and its perceived enemies inside jails,” Palabay said. “For instance, the multiple murder case against former Bayan Muna representative Satur Ocampo and peace consultants Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, Randall Echanis, Vicente Ladlad, and Rafael Baylosis are based on obviously manufactured evidences of portable human skeletons, which existed at one time in two places in Inopacan, and Baybay, Leyte,” Palabay said. The Tiamzon couple has been in incarcerated inside the Custodial Center at Camp Crame for more than a year now. 
This multiple murder case was manufactured by the now abolished Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (IALAG) of Gloria Arroyo, “but the BS Aquino government still uses this to chase and jail the peace consultants,”” she added. “Arroyo’s dirty old tricks are the same dirty tricks this regime is using, but more brazen this time.” 
“Another consultant, Tirso Alcantara faces 43 fabricated criminal cases. The Armed Forces of the Philippines has been shopping for cases against Alcantara all-over Southern Tagalog regardless if evidences are weak, unbelievable or impossible,” Palabay cited. 
Palabay observed that some information sheet did not even mention the names of the consultants, citing the case of Renante Gamara who was arrested and imprisoned for supposedly being ‘Ka Mike’, an accused in a murder case in Mauban, Quezon. 
“We challenge the BS Aquino regime to correct its violations of the signed agreements with the NDFP such as the agreement on safety and immunity of the peace consultants, the JASIG, and the agreement on human rights and international humanitarian law, the CARHRIHL, by releasing the NDFP peace consultants and all political prisoners,” ended Palabay. ###