2 NDF peace consultants decry military surveillance

ILOILO CITY—Two Western Visayas consultants in the peace negotiations between the government and communist rebels have decried alleged surveillance operations by suspected government agents.

Ma. Concepcion Araneta-Bocala and Ruben Saluta, consultants of the National Democratic Front (NDF), said they were followed by two motorcycle-riding men from Quezon City on their way to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 on Sunday.

The two were going to the airport for their flight to Iloilo when they noticed the men following their vehicle.

Saluta said he noticed that the motorcycle maintained a distance of two vehicles from the one they were riding and made no attempt to overtake them. The men also followed them whenever they changed directions.

“We tried to go into side streets but they were still behind us. They only stopped following us when we were already near the airport,” Bocala told the Inquirer at the sidelines of a consultation on the peace talks in this city on Monday.

Having spent decades in the underground, the two consultants said they immediately recognized a surveillance operation.

Bocala, 65, was arrested in August last year in a rented house in Iloilo City. She was allegedly the head of the Communist Party of the Philippines on Panay Island at the time of her arrest.

Saluta, 69, a native of Aklan province, was arrested in Caloocan City in March 2015. He has been tagged by the military as a leader of the New People’s Army in Panay.

They were among the 19 detainees who were conditionally released in August for the resumption of the talks.

Bocala said they could not find any reason for the alleged surveillance other than “harassment” as she raised concern over the safety and security of the peace consultants.

She pointed out that since their release on bail in August, they have been very visible attending two rounds of peace talks in Oslo, Norway, and in rallies, symposiums and other activities related to the peace negotiations.

“They know where were we live and where we go and the activities we have been part of,” she said.

Bocala and Saluta said the surveillance operation violated the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig) which was affirmed by both parties during the first round of talks in August.

“The Jasig (among others) prohibits surveillance and arrest of those involved in the peace negotiations from both panels,” Bocala said.

The NDFP consultants said they were talking to their lawyers and will report the incident to their government counterparts.

In the public consultation organized by the peace advocates belonging to the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform and held at La Isabelita Hall at the Jaro Cathedral compound, Bocala and Saluta presented the NDF’s draft on the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms.