NDFP: Government abducted our consultant

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) said yesterday one of its consultants was allegedly abducted by men in uniform in Cubao, Quezon City last Nov. 28.

NDFP negotiating panel chairman Luis Jalandoni, in an e-mailed statement from The Netherlands, said Elizabeth Principe, 56, was snatched in broad daylight, with her abductors supposedly using a similar modus operandi as that used in the disappearance of Jonas Burgos, son of press freedom icon Jose Burgos Jr., seven months ago.

He said Principe was forcibly taken around 11 a.m. on Nov. 28 in Cubao by eight men in black uniforms that were similar to that used by the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Jalandoni said the NDFP holds President Arroyo, being the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the PNP, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, and National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales of the Cabinet Oversight Committee for Internal Security (COC-IS) responsible for Principe’s abduction, the enforced disappearance of other NDFP consultants and many other victims of involuntary disappearances by the Arroyo administration.

“These grave crimes against the Filipino people deepen the isolation of the Arroyo regime and push the people to fight ever more strongly to oust it,” he also said.

Jalandoni said Principe is protected by the GRP-NDFP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) as an NDFP consultant in the peace negotiations between the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines. The NDFP is the CPP’s political arm

Jalandoni said Principe’s abduction, the latest in a long series of gross violations of the JASIG and other peace agreements “seriously jeopardizes any possibility for exploratory peace talks between the GRP and the NDFP.” – Katherine Adraneda