NDFP consultant Adelberto Silva, who was arrested on June 1, 2015, asserted he is a peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) belying earlier claims of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
NDFP consultant Adelberto Silva, who was arrested on June 1, 2015, asserted he is a peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) belying earlier claims of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
I am a consultant of the NDFP in its peace negotiations with the Philippine government. I helped prepare the labor and economic agenda in the 1987 peace negotiation and in the current peace talks between the GPH and NDFP. I am committed to the struggle for a just and lasting peace, pave a path by which our country can lift itself out of the quagmire of crisis, poverty, mendicancy and corruption we currently find ourselves in,” Silva said in a statement released through human rights group Karapatan.
Silva, 67, is a holder of JASIG documentation of identification with the assumed named “Percival Rojo” and with Document of Identification number ND 978229. He is a trade union organizer since the Martial Law period. Silva, his wife Rosanna Cabusao and another companion, Isidro De Lima, were arrested in Molino, Bacoor, Cavite by some 30 members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police (CIDG-PNP). Cabusao is a researcher/consultant of the Crispin B. Beltran Resource Center and a founding member of Gabriela.
“The GPH and the AFP have consistently disregarded and violated the GPH-NDFP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). Wala namang kinilala o in-acknowledge na peace consultant ang mga yan. They always resort to criminalizing the work of peace consultants; arresting and detaining them on trumped-up criminal charges and planted guns and explosives. Silva showed us his JASIG ID. He should be protected from arrest and detention. His arrest and that of his wife activist Rosanna Cabusao and companion Isidro de Lima is illegal,” stated Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general.
“I surmised that I was made to appear as the new secretary general of Communist Party of the Philippines so that the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police could collect higher monetary reward or bounty for my arrest and for psywar operations. I categorically deny any involvement in the trumped-up multiple charges against me. All accusations hurled against me, my wife Rosanna Cabusao and my companion Isidro de Lima, are false, malicious and baseless,” said Silva.