PRESS STATEMENTS & INTERVIEWS, 2001 - Present

Press Statement

PNP Murder Complaint Has Absolutely No Basis in Fact and in Law

12 February 2003

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has absolutely no basis in fact and in law to file a murder complaint against me for the death of Col. Rodolfo Aguinaldo.

The attempt of the PNP to link me with those originally accused of being responsible for the killing of Col. Aguinaldo is manifestly contrived and malicious. I have no connection whatsoever with anyone of them.

The New People’s Army (NPA) has publicly admitted responsibility for the killing of Col. Aguinaldo. It sought to arrest him for committing gross human rights violations since the Marcos fascist regime and for participating in military operations against the NPA.

According to the NPA military command in Cagayan Valley, the NPA arresting unit acted in self-defense against a well-known combatant, who was at the same time an armed and dangerous criminal suspect, by firing at him when he and his armed companions resisted arrest in June 2001.

The authorities of the reactionary government should know their own law, which categorizes the killing of Col. Aguinaldo as an act of rebellion of the NPA and not a common crime of murder.

They should also remember the Hernandez doctrine in their own jurisprudence, which prohibits the filing of charges of common crimes in place of the charge of simple rebellion against those involved in the armed revolution carried out by the NPA.

The false charge of murder being cooked up against me is part of the vile propaganda scheme of the US and the Macapagal-Arroyo regime to demonize me and put pressure on the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in the peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).

The GRP is prejudicing the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations by fabricating a charge of common crime against me. Such fabrication is a serious violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian law (CARHRIHL) which prohibits the trumping up of charges of common crimes against revolutionaries.

The GRP has a shameless record of making false charges against me in the time of Marcos and then in the time of Aquino. This time the Macapagal-Arroyo regime is persecuting me by conniving with the US in vilifying me as a "terrorist" despite the absence of any formal charge against me and by belatedly inventing the charge of murder.  But I am confident of debunking the charges and letting the truth prevail.

The officials of the Department of Justice of the GRP are wasting their time by accommodating the false charges invented by the PNP. The charges are patently false and politically motivated and cannot overcome the legal protection that I get from the Refugee Convention and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.#