Court defers Tiamzon couple’s arraignment

THE arraignment of suspected communist leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon and their five companions was moved to another date after their lawyers requested the court to first resolve a pleading to dismiss all the charges filed against the group.

Judge Ruben Altubar of the Regional Trial Court Branch 29 in Toledo City yesterday granted the defense’s motion to defer the arraignment of the accused.

He ordered the prosecution to file within 15 days its comment on the plea to junk the charges filed against all the accused and for the prosecution to submit its corresponding response.

Altubar earlier denied the plea of the defense to dismiss the charges against the Tiamzon couple and their companions. Their lawyers requested the court to reconsider its ruling.

“The court should look at the version of the accused. Clearly, the items puportedly seized from them were planted,” said Manila-based lawyer Rachel Pastores in an interview after the proceedings.

She said there was no basis to file charges against all the accused who did not commit any crime.

Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, chairman and secretary-general, respectively, of the Communist Party of the Philippines, as well as three others — Joel Enano, Arlene Panea and Rex Villaflor— were charged with illegal possession of explosive and incendiary devices after two fragmentation grenades were allegedly recovered and confiscated from them when they were arrested during a joint police and military checkpoint in barangay Zaragoza in Aloguinsan town, southwest Cebu last March 22.

The five accused were also charged with possession of a .45-caliber Colt pistol and three magazines with 17 rounds of ammunition, and a 9mm Norinco pistol with a magazine loaded with seven rounds of ammunition.

Enano, Panea, Villaflor as well as Nona “Lorraine” Castillo and Jeosi Nepa were separately charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly “harboring and concealing” the Tiamzon couple, who face a multiple murder charges in the the Northern Samar Regional Trial Court in Hilongos, Leyte.

The multiple murder charges were in connection with the discovery of mass graves in Inopacan, Leyte, purportedly of victims of communist purges in the 1980s.

Castillo and Nepa are also facing charges of illegal possession of firearms.

Only Castillo and Nepa face a bailable offense. But their lawyers are asking the court to reduce the recommended bail from P120,000 to P60,000.

“They (Castillo and Nepa) could not afford the earlier recommended bail bond. We know that bail is a matter of right so the bail should be be within their reach,” said Cebuano lawyer Ian Vincent Manticajon, one of the legal counsels of the group.

Benito and Wilma were on their way to Negros Oriental to continue organizing consultations with communities affected by supertyphoon Yolanda when they were intercepted in Aloguinsan town.

They claim to be covered by safe conduct passes, under the Joint Agreement of Security and Immunity Guarantees (Jasig) as peace consultants of the National Democratic Front (NDF) but the government said they are not covered as the formal peace process has been stalled.

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