No pardon for Rowe killers — Palace

The convicted killers of US Army Col. Nick Rowe will not be among the more than 100 political prisoners who will be granted amnesty by President Estrada, Malacañang said yesterday.

Press Secretary Ricardo Puno said Justice Secretary Artemio Tuquero has informed the Chief Executive that Donito Continente and Juanito Itaas have pending amnesty applications with the National Amnesty Commission.

"And they (Continente and Itaas) will not be included among the 200 or so political prisoners whose records will be studied one by one," he said.

Puno said the justice secretary will only review cases which are classified as "offenses in pursuit of their political beliefs," and that these will be examined one by one before a case is submitted to Mr. Estrada.

However, Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora told reporters yesterday Continente and Itaas may be included in a planned amnesty for political prisoners under a peace agreement with the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa-Pilipinas/Revolutionary Proletarian Army/Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPMP-RPA-ABB), which was signed in Bacolod City last Sunday.

Zamora said the US Embassy had earlier asked the Supreme Court to reject the petition that they be released from the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa City.

Rowe was head of the Joint United States Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG) when he was assassinated by hitmen belonging to the ABB.

Zamora said the amnesty will cover more than 100 political prisoners at the National Penitentiary, who are in a list submitted to Malacañang by non-government organizations like Task Force Detainees.

Zamora said the President granted conditional pardon to 11 political prisoners on Christmas last year, and that the next batch may be released before Christmas after the Department of Justice has reviewed their individual cases.

Zamora chairs the National Peace Forum, which Mr. Estrada created on June 21, 1999 under Executive Order No. 115 to oversee and supervise all peace initiatives related to the communist insurgency.

In Bacolod City, five political prisoners are still locked up in jail even after the 24-hour deadline for their release set by the President expired yesterday.

Provincial jail warden Marcos Ybañez told reporters Jose Winnie Bargamento, Joaquin Esparez, Armando Oceña, Ronnie Rotuni, and Sael Villaespin have not yet been freed because their release papers are still pending before local courts.

The government has promised to release 30 more political prisoners before Christmas.

Meanwhile, labor leader Filemon "Popoy" Lagman disassociated himself yesterday from the ABB-RPA after the communist hit squad signed a peace agreement with the administration.

At a press conference in a Quezon City restaurant, Lagman said Nilo de la Cruz and Arturo Tabara, who represented the two breakaway groups in talks with the government, were "big sellouts" who had "betrayed the revolution" in exchange for P500 million in livelihood projects from the administration.

"I am compelled to speak out because people always linked me to the ABB," he said. "But I have nothing to do with the group. At a time when just about everybody is calling for Erap’s ouster, here are two sellouts marrying the despicable and corrupt President."

Lagman said Dela Cruz joined the ABB breakaway faction but was subsequently expelled because of his alleged failure to live up to the group’s ideology.

"These two men –De la Cruz and Tabara – have been disciplined by the (communist) party before because of excessive drinking," he said. "If there is one thing you will find in common with Dela Cruz, Tabara, and Mr. Estrada – they’re all drunkards."

Lagman accused the ABB and RPA leaders of pocketing P15 million of the first P50 million that the administration had released after the peace agreement was signed.

Lagman belittled the RPA’s capability as an armed group, saying that from the beginning, it did not have the mass base crucial to a successful revolution.

"It’s a spent force," he said.

Lagman said while the ABB-RPA had made peace with the government, exiled communist leader Jose Ma. Sison has entered into an alliance with traditional politicians led by Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

"You see why we say that we have to speak an independent voice on behalf of the workers who won’t benefit at all from a government led by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the constitutional successor to Mr. Estrada," he said.

Lagman said he had been lying low for over a year now because of two standing warrants for his arrest issued by two different courts for the killing of a barangay chairman in Quiapo, Manila, and that of a suspected drug lord in Las Piñas.

The ABB was part of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, before breaking away following a series of power struggles within the party in the 1980s launched by young turks who questioned Sison’s alleged dictatorial leadership.

The Negros-based RPA is another leftist armed group that resulted from a split of the communist movement into several warring factions.– Marichu Villanueva, Antonieta Lopez, Romel Bagares