Ex-CPP chair nabbed over 1985 killings

MASSACRE LINK Police Brig. Gen. Rhodel Sermonia (right), Central Luzon police chief, presents former Communist Party of the Philippines chair, Rodolfo Salas, to reporters in Pampanga province. Salas, also the former leader of the New People’s Army, was arrested on Tuesday over his alleged involvement in the murder of former communist rebels. —TONETTE OREJAS

ANGELES CITY, Pampanga, Philippines — Rodolfo Salas, former chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and head of the New People’s Army (NPA), on Tuesday questioned the authenticity of the arrest warrant and the murder charges against him.

Police arrested Salas, 72, also known as “Kumander Bilog,” in his house in Barangay Balibago here at 5 a.m. on Tuesday on 29 counts of murder in connection with the so-called “Inopacan massacre” in Leyte province in 1985.

The arresting team also found a .45-caliber pistol and several bullets in Salas’ home.

Brig. Gen. Rhodel Sermonia, Central Luzon police director, later presented Salas and 14 rebel returnees to reporters.

The former rebels claimed they knew Salas.

‘Genuine’ warrant

Sermonia said the arrest warrant was “genuine” and that the criminal cases from which the 29 counts of murder stemmed should be questioned in court.

The cases were said to be related to the murder of at least 67 former NPA members in Inopacan town, Leyte in September 1985.

At the press briefing, Salas said he was not informed about these cases.

“I did not even get a subpoena,” he said.

Salas said the arresting officers from six police units, led by Lt. Col. Reynante Penuela of the Special Concerns Unit, were “civil and courteous.”

Accomplishment

Salas said he was jailed from 1986 until 1992 after being convicted of rebellion. Because he served time, the absolute pardon given by then President Fidel Ramos had little effect on his release from prison.

Salas helped in the peace talks with communists and separatists.

Saying his arrest was presented as an accomplishment of the police in carrying out President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order No. 70 on ending of the local insurgency, Salas insisted he had been inactive in the revolutionary movement in the last 28 years.

Police showed old party documents that were said to have been obtained from Salas’ house when the warrant was served. The warrant was issued by Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32.

Purge

The killings were supposedly a result of a purge in 1985 of CPP and NPA members who were suspected of being government spies. A mass grave was unearthed by the military in Inopacan in 2006.

Salas was named one of the accused in the cases, along with CPP founding chair, Jose Maria Sison, and former National Democratic Front of the Philippines chief negotiator, Luis Jalandoni.

Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac, Philippine National Police spokesperson, said: “The peaceful service of warrant of arrest and orderly search were made in the presence of barangay officials and Salas’ live-in partner, Jhoana Panicbatan Lamigo.”

Released

Salas became CPP chair in 1977 when Sison was arrested. After six years in prison, Salas returned to his home province, Pampanga, the following year, organizing cooperatives to help people displaced by Mt. Pinatubo’s 1991 eruptions to recover.

In 2016, Salas, Sison and their coaccused were charged with murder for the killing of former NPA rebels whose bodies were found in a mass grave in Barangay Subang Daku in Inopacan. —With a report from Inquirer Research