The National Democratic Front has claimed that its consultants, couple Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, were tailed by a group of men after meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte in Malacañang last week.
NDFP peace panel chair Fidel Agcaoili said that after meeting with Duterte, the Tiamzon couple went to the Lapanday farmers gathered at the Don Chino Roces Bridge (formerly Mendiola), only a few meters away from the Malacañan Palace.
Duterte also met with the Lapanday farmers at the historic bridge the same day.
After leaving the Lapanday farmers, the Tiamzon couple noticed that they were being tailed by two men riding an RS motorcycle with plate numbers 2419, Agcaoili said.
"They tried to shake off their tail for about half an hour before deciding to return to the Mendiola camp out, from where friends and comrades helped them evade their pursuers. The Tiamzons noticed that the back rider was constantly talking to someone on his cellphone while tailing them," Agcaoili added.
The NDFP peace panel chair said that the couple's pursuers had a back up of four men, composing two teams. He said these men also monitored the Tiamzon couple's movements.
Agcaoili said that the Tiamzons had also been tailed last March, upon their arrival from backchannel talks with the government's peace panel members in The Netherlands.
He added that "suspected military agents had interrogated the driver of a rented car used by the Tiamzons upon their arrival last January from the third round of peace negotiations."
Other NDFP political consultants had also complained of surveillance including Ruben Saluta, Concha Araneta, Tirso Alcantara, Ernesto Lorenzo and Kennedy Bangibang, Agcaoili said.
He said that putting political consultants involved in the peace talks is a violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantee (JASIG), which protects NDF consultants participating in the peace talks from harassment, search, arrest, detention, prosecution and interrogation.
Meanwhile, Agcaoili also the "illegal arrest" of NDF consultant Rommel Salinas on Thursday at a police checkpoint in Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental. He was allegedly arrested in the company of a bishop of the Philippine Independent Church and two others.
The NDF panel chair expressed "grave concern" over reports that the military has issued shoot-to-kill orders against consultant Pedto Codaste and has plans to abduct another consultant in Porferio Tuna.
Agcaoili is urging their counterparts in the government to look into the incidents, which he said, may have "severe repercussions on the ongoing peace negotiations.
The NDF and the government peace panels are scheduled to hold the fifth round of formal peace talks from May 27 to June 1 in The Netherlands. —Joseph Tristan Roxas/ALG, GMA News
© Toto Lozano/PPD President Rodrigo Duterte meets with National Democratic Front (NDF) Peace Panel members Fidel Agcaoili, Chit Agcaoili, Benito Tiamzon, and Wilma Tiamzon over dinner at Legaspi Suites in Davao City on Friday, December…