Escaped mutineer has joined NPA?

The Armed Forces is validating reports that fugitive Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon has joined the communist New People’s Army (NPA).

"We are still trying to locate him," the Armed Forces said in a statement.

"We have no report about the supposed alliance of Faeldon with the left. We are still verifying the information," it said.

Earlier, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said an "A-1 source" from the intelligence community told him that Faeldon was last seen somewhere in Mindoro where he had reportedly forged a pact with the NPA to oust President Arroyo.

"Our last information from A-1 source said that Faeldon was last seen two weeks ago in Mindoro," he said. "For all we know, he is already in Metro Manila because he must be moving."

Faeldon, one of six ringleaders of the failed 2003 Oakwood military uprising, escaped from his lone security escort on Dec. 14 after attending a court hearing on the coup d’etat charges against him before the Makati Regional Trial Court.

Initially, Faeldon was reported to have flown out of the country as he has a valid travel visa for the United States.

But a senior military intelligence official said Faeldon is just moving from one place to another in Metro Manila.

In a statement, Faeldon, in a letter to his colleagues detained at the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said that he escaped to join the "fight for a credible government."

The Marine officer has since launched a civil disobedience campaign in cyberspace against the administration.

Gonzalez said the DOJ is ready to charge and prosecute Faeldon with inciting to sedition based on reports that he escaped from his guards to join the group of former defense secretary Fortunato Abat, who declared a revolutionary transitional government at the Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan last month. — Jaime Laude