The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemned the Marcos regime’s armed forces for the recent arrest of a National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant. A joint force of the 2nd ID and police arrested Wigberto Villarico, alongside companion Marjorie Lizada, in Barangay Fairview, Quezon City on October 24.
“The Party demands that Villarico’s rights be respected and that he be immediately released. All trumped up charges against him must be immediately withdrawn. We demand that he be accorded his right to his own lawyer, and to a doctor of his choice,” Party chief information officer Marco Valbuena said.
The 68-year-old Villarico is suffering from various illnesses, including spondylitis, hypertension, heart arythmia, asthma, prostate enlargement, and other age-related diseases.
According to Valbuena, Villarico as a consultant was actively campaigning for the issues and demands of workers, peasants, and minority citizens, and other oppressed and exploited sectors in Southern Tagalog. He added that Villarico was arrested amid a typhoon and while he was monitoring and advising NDFP forces in organizing and mobilizing aid and resources for those affected by the typhoon.
Villarico is the third NDFP consultant the Marcos regime arrested this month. On October 2, state forces arrested Porferio Tuna in Tagum City, Davao del Norte, and on October 21, Simeon Naogsan or Ka Filiw in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte.
These arrests violates the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). The agreement signed by representatives of the GRP and NDFP on February 24, 1995, in Nieuwegein, The Netherlands states that consultants and personnel of both sides involved in the negotiations should be protected from arrest and other forms of harassment.
“Without a doubt, the successive arrests of NDFP peace consultants were carried out with the aim of derailing efforts to revive the NDFP-GRP peace negotiations,” Valbuena said. It has been a year since representatives of the GRP and NDFP signed the Oslo Joint Statement on November 23, 2023.
The statement contained a declaration of intent to reopen talks and establish a framework for negotiations. It was a general declaration that combined the aspirations of both sides: the resolution of “deep-seated socio-economic and political issues” and the “solution to the roots of armed conflict” on the part of the NDFP; and on the other hand, the “end of armed struggle” and the “transformation of CPP-NPA-NDFP” aimed for by the GRP.