Lawyer of ex-CPP chair says arrest, gun raps flawed

ANGELES CITY, Pampanga, Philippines — The legal counsel of Rodolfo Salas, former Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) chair, on Wednesday waived his rights to inquest proceedings a day after his arrest on 29 counts of murder in connection with the so-called Inopacan massacre in Leyte province in 1985.

With the waiver, the public prosecutor skipped a preliminary hearing on a separate police complaint for illegal possession of firearms against Salas, said his lawyer, Ricardo Sagmit.

The police reported recovering a .45-caliber pistol, 174 bullets and two .45-caliber magazines from Salas’ house during his arrest on Tuesday.

The waiver also urged the police to immediately proceed to file the same complaint in court.

‘Irregularities’

“We want to expeditiously resolve this allegation of illegal possession of firearms because the [conduct] has a lot of irregularities,” Sagmit said.

According to him, Salas’ home in Barangay Balibago here was searched without a warrant.

Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32 issued the warrant to arrest Salas, 72, and ordered his detention there.

Sagmit said they would seek the transfer of Salas to a jail in Angeles City for security reasons. Salas also used to be the chief of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the CPP.