Lawyers of Tiamzon couple to appeal arrest order

MANILA, Philippines — Lawyers of alleged communist rebel leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon said that they will appeal an order to arrest the couple, who were given temporary liberty in 2016 for peace talks with the government.

Edre Olalia, president of the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers, said in a statement that they are considering filing a motion for reconsideration "even if it seems a long shot under the present circumstances."

Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32, in an order dated January 11, issued an arrest order against the Tiamzon couple and their co-accused Adelberto Silva. The court also ordered the cancellation of their bail bonds of P100,000.

READ: Court: No peace talks, no temporary liberty for Tiamzons

The three were allowed provisional liberty because of their participation in the peace talks, but the president, in November last year, scrapped formal and back-channel negotiations.

Presiding Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina said that there remains no reason for the temporary liberty of the three accused since President Rodrigo Duterte terminated the peace talks with the communists.

"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," Olalia said, referring to the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in 1995.

"A unilateral declaration by one side without the proper written notice duly receipted by the other, no matter how categorical yet at the same unjustified, does not make the grade and does not bind the latter," Olalia said.

According to JASIG, the agreement will be considered terminated 30 days after receipt of a notice of termination by the other party.

"And this is not fussing over mere procedure but is warranted by fairness, practicality and principle," Olalia said, adding: "No one in his right mind will participate in any peace negotiations if the protections and guarantees of safety and immunity for such involvement can easily be brushed aside, even under the colorable legal theater of one party."

Solicitor General Jose Calida, in a statement last year, said that the SC issued a resolution dated Aug. 2, 2016 that states that the conditions for the provisional liberty of the accused is cancelled "once their participation ceases or the peace negotiations are terminated."

Calida stressed that the SC resolution "supersedes" the JASIG.