Benito and Wilma Tiamzon. JULLIANE LOVE DE JESUS/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
The camp of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon said on Wednesday that they would appeal a Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) decision ordering the rearrest of the couple.
Tiamzons’ co-counsel and National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) president Edre Olalia maintained that the peace process has not yet been properly terminated in accordance with the “solemn and binding protocol mutually agreed upon by the parties.”
“A motion for reconsideration, even if seemingly a long shot under the present circumstances, remains a legal option,” Olalia said in a statement.
“A unilateral declaration by one side without the proper written notice duly receipted by the other, no matter how categorical yet at the same unjustified, does not make the grade and does not bind the latter,” he added.
In a January 11 decision released publicly on Wednesday, Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 32 ordered the arrest of the Tiamzons, together with co-accused National Democratic Front (NDF) consultant Adelberto Silva, as it granted the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s earlier motion for recommitment and cancellation of bail.
The court said that following President Rodrigo Duterte’s official termination of the peace talks through Proclamation No. 360, there was no more reason for the Tiamzons and Silva to enjoy temporary liberty.
READ: Manila court orders rearrest of Tiamzon couple
Olalia, who also sits as NDF negotiating panel legal consultant, said that the camp was “not fussing over mere procedure but is warranted by fairness, practicality and principle.”
“No one in his right mind will participate in any peace negotiations if the protections and guarantees of safety and immunity for such involvement can easily be brushed aside, even under the colorable legal theatre of one party,” he pointed out. /je