Court allows NDFP consultants to join peace talks in Netherlands

MANILA, Philippines — A Manila court on Friday allowed five consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines to travel abroad and take part in the revived peace talks between the Philippine government and communists.

In a five-page order signed by Presiding Justice Thelma Bunyi-Medina, the regional trial court of Manila Branch 32 granted the motion to travel abroad by Benito Tiamzon, Adelberto Silva, Rafael Baylosis, Randall Echanis and Vicente Ladlad.

In their pleading, the consultants said their participation in the talks is “indispensable.”

The court said the provisional liberty for the NDFP consultants was given for the purpose of their attendance in scheduled informal talks on June 22 to 26 and formal peace negotiations on June 27 to 30 in the Netherlands.

The court also set conditions in allowing the NDFP negotiators to travel abroad, including their return to the Philippines within three calendar days after completion of talks.

Meanwhile, the court ordered Baylosis and Tiamzon to post another P100,000 bail after their previous bail bonds were canceled following their rearrest last January.

Citing continued hostilities, President Rodrigo Duterte in November last year unilaterally scrapped the reactivated peace talks between the government and Maoist rebels. Both sides have been in on-off negotiations since 1986.

But Duterte last April said he was willing to resuscitate the negotiations and strike a peace deal with communist guerrillas. He also urged exiled Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Ma. Sison to come and start the peace talks.

The NDFP consultants are on trial for murder in connection with the discovery of a mass grave in Leyte in 2006.

Baylosis, an alleged secretary of the New People’s Army, is being held at Camp Crame after he was nabbed for possession of illegal firearms and explosives in Quezon City on January 31.