Jailed NDF consultant open to participate in peace talks

ILAGAN, Isabela – A rebel leader in Cagayan Valley who has been in jail for almost three years has expressed interest in joining the National Democratic Front's (NDF) peace negotiations with the government. Randy Malayao, 41, who is listed by the NDF as one of its consultants, said he is open to joining the communist-led umbrella group’s negotiating panel which is set to meet with the Philippine government for the resumption of formal peace talks in February. “If given the chance, I can be of help to the NDF negotiating panel but it is up to the higher officials of the organization," Malayao said. The rebel leader has been in jail for two and a half years now on charges of direct assault with multiple murder, after the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) tagged him as among the rebels who ambushed a convoy of Army soldiers in Balagan, San Mariano, Isabela in 2008. Malayao said the AFP’s charges were trumped up. He also said he hopes the administration of President Benigno Aquino III would look into the condition of political prisoners in the country. In light of this, Malayao, allegedly the NDF’s regional spokesman for Cagayan Valley using the nom de guerre Salvador Del Pueblo, asked on Thursday the help of former peace negotiator and justice secretary Silvestre Bello III in a meeting at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP). Malayao asked Bello to forward to the government peace panel his letter requesting, among others, that his name’s inclusion on the list of official NDF consultants and advisers be verified. Those on the list are supposedly covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantee (JASIG) signed by the government and the rebels. For his part, Bello said he would submit Malayao’s letter to the government’s chief negotiator Alexander Padilla. According to Bello, Malayao’s request may be granted once it is proven that he is indeed a consultant under the JASIG agreement. Malayao, a native of San Pablo town in Isabela, graduated from the University of the Philippines in the Visayas with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Fisheries. He was arrested on May 15, 2008 in Cainta, Rizal by military and police agents. He was previously jailed at the BJMP in Tuguegarao City until he was transferred to the BJMP in Isabela. He was earlier acquitted in the ambush-slay of former Cagayan congressman Rodolfo Aguinaldo and aide Joey Garro on June 12, 2001. Talks between the NDF and the government crumbled in 2004 after the Philippine government under then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo rejected the NDF demand to urge the US and the European Union to take the CPP and NPA off the list of international terrorist organizations.—Joel Nueva with JMA/JV, GMANews.TV