Palace: Rebel leader's arrest doesn't violate ceasefire

Malacañang on Monday said it will not order the release of suspected communist leader Pedro Codaste as his arrest in Mindanao last Friday did not violate the ceasefire agreement between the government and the New People's Army. At a press briefing, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Codaste is not listed as a consultant of the National Democratic Front negotiating panel talking peace with the government so he is not covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig). "There is no violation of ceasefire agreement," Lacierda said. "He's not covered under the Jasig." The Jasig provides immunity from arrest to members, consultants and staff of the NDF who are part of the negotiating panel, which will resume formal negotiations with the government in February next year. The Communist Party of the Philippines is demanding the release of Codaste, who was arrested along with four of his companions last Friday at a checkpoint in Bayugan town, Agusan del Sur. The CPP claimed Codaste is a peace consultant of the NDF, the CPP's political wing. "The arrest of Codaste and his staff is in outright violation of the letter and spirit of the simultaneous ceasefire declarations. The CPP and the NDFP demand that Malacañang immediately rectify the violation and order the local police to release with dispatch Codaste and his staff in order to boost, instead of destroy, the goodwill being generated on both sides for the resumption of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations next month," the CPP said in a statement posted on its website Sunday night. But Lacierda maintained that there was no military offensive on Codaste as he was arrested while passing through a checkpoint. The Palace official also pointed out that the standing warrants of arrest against Codaste was the reason for his arrest. Police said Codaste has standing warrants for his arrest issued by the Malabalay City Regional Trial Court Branch 8 for charges of double murder and double frustrated murder. The holiday truce between the government and the NPA, which started on Thursday, requires combatants of both parties to stop offensive operations for the entire duration of the ceasefire period, which will end January 3. In observance of the Jasig, the government allowed Luis Jalandoni, head of the NDF negotiating panel, to return to the Philippines early this month without arresting him. Peace talks between the government and the leftist insurgents hit a snag in 2002 after the United States included the CPP and its armed wing, the NPA, on the list of foreign terrorist organizations. The NDF backed out of the negotiations in 2004 to protest the refusal of the Philippine government under then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to lobby the US and the European Union (EU) to remove the groups from the terrorist list. — RSJ/KBK, GMANews.TV