A consultant for the leftist coalition, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) was arrested by the Philippine National Police early this morning for allegedly possessing illegal firearms.
Vic Ladlad was reportedly arrested in Novaliches, Quezon City at around 12mn, his wife Fides Lim said in a Facebook post shared by Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison today.
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In a note after Lim’s message, Sison alleged that there was no valid warrant of arrest against Ladlad.
“But in the Duterte scheme, he is likely to be framed up as a combatant with firearms and explosives planted….” Sison alleged.
However, Quezon City police told ABS-CBN News that they had a search warrant when they arrested Ladlad and two other people from what they called a “safe house” in the neighborhood’s Barangay (village) San Bartolome.
Ladlad and the two others were allegedly found with an AK47 with a bayonet, an M16A1 assault rifle, two .45 caliber pistols, a 9mm pistol, several loaded magazines, four grenades, and “subversive documents.”
However, Ladlad’s wife told radio station DZMM today that those were planted.
“That’s planted evidence so my husband can’t get out of jail,” she said in Filipino.
Ladlad and the two others were brought to Camp Caringal in Diliman, Quezon City but will be transferred to Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City, the same ABS-CBN report states.
Authorities told GMA News that Ladlad will be presented at the National Capital Region Police Office headquarters today.
Sison said in his Facebook post that Ladlad was part of back-channel talks and that as an NDFP consultant, he should have been protected by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).
The JASIG was an agreement between the Philippine government and the NDFP in 1995 that guaranteed that those involved in peace talks can’t be harmed or arrested.
However, President Rodrigo Duterte terminated this agreement in February last year amid conflict between the administration and the CPP, Rappler reported.
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