DOJ asks court to junk temporary liberty granted to rebel leaders

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has moved for the junking of the provisional liberty granted by the court to communist rebel leaders Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Tiamzon and Edilberto Silva.

In a two-page motion, state prosecutors Olivia Laroza-Torrevillas and Aristotle Reyes asked the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 32 to strip them of their temporary liberty due to the cancellation of peace talks.

The DOJ prosecutors also noted that President Rodrigo Duterte had already signed Proclamation No. 360, which formally terminated the peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, and National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

“In view of the cancellation of the peace talks, there is no more legal ground for the continuous provisional liberty of the accused,” read the DOJ motion. “Thus, the immediate recommitment and cancellation of bail of all the accused should logically follow.”

Duterte earlier branded the CPP and NPA as criminals after the death of a four-month old baby and two other civilians in an reported ambush that targeted a police convoy in Bukidon province last November.

On Tuesday (Dec. 5), Duterte signed a proclamation declaring the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations, according to his spokesman Harry Roque.

Roque said that the DOJ had already been instructed to file a petition before the Manila RTC to classify the CPP-NPA as terrorist groups. /atm