Rodolfo Salas, a former leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), was arrested today in Angeles City, Pampanga in connection with the government has characterized as a mass purge of at least 100 communists in Leyte province in the 1980s.
The 72-year-old was arrested by the police at about 5:50am at his home, The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports. The authorities found a pistol and ammunition after searching his house.
The arrest stems from a September 2019 warrant ordered by a Manila court against Salas, CPP founder Jose Maria Sison, his wife Juliet Sison, and other members of the CPP in connection with the alleged executions of their own members from 1985 to 1992. In 2006, the military said it had found a mass grave full of skeletal remains in Inopacan town, Leyte, where the government says victims of the purge were buried, SunStar Manila reports. A case was filed against the CPP leaders a year after.
Salas led the CPP insurgency during its peak in the 1980s, and at one point was its commander and chairman. He had already been arrested in 1987, but was freed in 1992 after being granted amnesty by then-President Fidel Ramos. He then moved to Pampanga where he worked with farmers, according to Rappler.
Meanwhile, the Sisons have yet to be arrested because they remain in self-exile in the Netherlands, where they have lived since the 1980s.
Read more Coconuts Manila articles here.
Reader Interactions