Rebel informants get P51.2-M reward this year

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – The government has spent at least P51.2 million this year to fund informants that led to the arrest of communist rebel leaders.

The human rights group Karapatan, however, claimed the government had spent the funds to reward informants against those falsely charged.

In 2012, the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued Joint Order No. 14-2012 revealing the list of “wanted communist leaders” with a corresponding bounty money amounting to more than P466 million.

Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said the list “legitimizes illegal arrests and false charges, aside from legitimizing a syndicated money-making venture.”

Palabay said eight of those in the list included Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) chairman Benito Tiamzon and his wife Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, both with a P10-million bounty.

Also included was Roy Erecre, a peace consultant of the National Democratic Front for the Visayas, with a P5.6-million reward for his capture.

Karapatan insisted their arrest violated the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) signed with the government in the peace negotiations with the CPP.

An amended DND-DILG Joint Order has deleted the names of NDF consultants, among them Austria-Tiamzon, “in recognition of the pending peace negotiations and conditions upon the existence of said peace negotiations.” But Austria-Tiamzon remains detained, Palabay said.

Those arrested through tipsters were community organizers and development workers like Dionisio Almonte, a peasant organizer, who had a P5-million bounty. Almonte was undergoing medical treatment when he was arrested together with his wife.