Panay CPP leader freed, says peace prospect good

ILOILO CITY—Prospects for peace between the government and communist insurgents are brighter than ever before, according to Ma. Concepcion “Concha” Araneta-Bocala, alleged secretary of the Communist Party of the Philippines on Panay Island, who was released from detention yesterday after courts granted her petition for bail.

Bocala, 65, is one of at least 10 communist rebel leaders temporarily freed to be able to join the resumption of formal peace negotiations in Oslo, Norway, set on Aug. 20 to 27. Bocala will join the reciprocal panel on socioeconomic issues.

“I will air the situation of Panay Island especially the concerns of farmers,” she said in a press conference at the Iloilo City campus of the University of the Philippines-Visayas.

It was the first time she set foot on the campus since 1971 when she was still a journalism student. A scion of the landed Araneta family, Bocala went underground and joined the rebel New People’s Army when the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law on Sept. 21, 1972.

Bocala said the prospects for peace with the Duterte administration were brighter compared to the 1986 to 1987 peace talks between the National Democratic Front (NDF)and the government of then president Corazon Aquino.

Positive pronouncements

She pointed to the positive pronouncements of President Duterte on land reform, ending labor contractualization and the release of political prisoners.

But she said the President should make good on his promises.

She said the peace talks will progress “if the government will be open to the realities of the situation of the people and if meaningful reforms are implemented.”

She said the NDF peace panel will also push for the unconditional release of all political prisoners.

She noted that her release and those of other consultants were conditional and only for the peace negotiations.

Courts in Iloilo City, Aklan and Antique ordered her release after she posted bail totaling P400,000.
Murder charge

Bocala is facing a murder charge before the Kalibo, Aklan Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 2. She is among those accused in the killing of Metudio Inesa on Sept. 18, 1975 at Sitio Agbanuod in Barangay Panipiason in Madalag town, Aklan. She has also been charged for rebellion before the Culasi, Antique RTC Branch 13.

She has two other cases for rebellion and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition and explosives pending at the Iloilo Regional Trial Court.

Bocala has denied the charges, saying these were “trumped-up” charges to justify her prolonged detention.

Bocala was arrested in a rented house in Molo District in Iloilo City on Aug. 1 last year with a P7.8-million bounty on her head.