Rebellion raps vs CPP-NPA 'leader' junked

Candon, Ilocos Sur – A judge here has dismissed rebellion charges filed against a suspected ranking communist leader who was also linked by military authorities to the Oakwood mutiny in Makati City in 2007.

Judge Gabino Balbin Jr. of Regional Trial Court Branch 23 favored the findings of provincial prosecutor Redentor Cardenas who re-investigated the case of Elizabeth Prinsipe, 58, tagged as a peace consultant of the National Democratic Front.

In his three-page resolution, Cardenas said Prinsipe’s participation “was not actual but only presumed.”

“Under the basic tenets of criminal law, any doubt should always be interpreted in favor of the innocence of the accused,” Cardenas said. 

Last July, Balbin ordered Cardenas to re-investigate the case, as sought by human rights lawyers.

Prinsipe was arrested on Nov. 28 last year in a mall in Metro Manila.

She was tagged in the Oakwood mutiny, but was later indicted for an attempted murder case in 1991 in this province.

But Prinsipe, in her counter-affidavit, said she had worked as a paramedic in Cagayan Valley prior to her arrest.

She denied any hand in the attempted murder case, saying the witnesses’ testimonies against her were merely based on hearsay.

Prinsipe maintained that she had never set foot in Ilocos Sur, except during her arraignment in January this year.

Prinsipe, according to human rights lawyer Reynaldo Cortes, is facing other criminal charges in Nueva Vizcaya.   

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has raised doubts on Prinsipe’s claim that she was a paramedic.

“She had no reason as to why she was in the camps of the rebels and she never gave any reason why she had to render medical services and educate people in these places, as she was never employed by the government,” the CIDG said.

The CIDG insisted that Prinsipe and her husband, Leo Velasco, are both ranking leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army.