The Manila Regional Trial Court has ordered the re-arrest of three Communist leaders following the termination of peace talks between their group and the government.
In a five-page decision made public on Wednesday, Branch 32 Presiding Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina granted the Department of Justice’s and the Office of the Solicitor General’s motion for the recommitment of Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, and Adelberto Silva, and the cancellation of their bail.
The court said it “finds no reason to further allow their temporary liberty” following President Rodrigo Duterte’s signing of Proclamation 360 that officially terminated the talks between the government and the National Democratic Front, the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
In a statement, the National Union of People’s Lawyers, the Communist leaders’ lawyers, said they were mulling filing an appeal.
“We maintain that the peace negotiations have not yet been terminated properly and in accordance with the solemn and binding protocol mutually agreed upon by the parties,” the NUPL said.
The Tiamzons and Silva are facing 15-counts of murder over the mass grave discovered in Leyte in 2006.
They were granted provisional liberty and temporarily released in 2016 so they could participate in the second round of peace negotiations held in Oslo, Norway. With a report from Moira Encina, Eagle News Service