An alleged member of the Communist Party of the Philippines Central Committee facing charges for multiple murder on 15 counts and kidnapping in Leyte and Tuguegarao, was apprehended in Brgy. Calumangan, Bago City , yesterday by intelligence operatives of the Negros Occidental police.

Armed with a search warrant issued by Leyte Judge Ephraim Abando, a NOPPO team, assisted by the Bago police, swooped down on a farmer's training center in Bago City , at about 3:30 p.m. and arrested Randall Echanis, 60, of Pateros, Rizal.

Senior Supt. Rosendo Franco, provincial police director of Negros Occidental, said they are still validating information that Echanis is a member of the CPP Central Committee.

He is charged with self-exiled CPP chairman Jose Maria Sison and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo for multiple murder, in connection with the discovery of mass graves in Hilongos, Leyte .

Dismissing claims that Echanis is a CPP central committee member as baseless, KMP public relations officer Carl Ala said Echanis is the KMP national deputy secretary general for external affairs who was in Negros for consultations in preparation for National Rural Congress being called by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines in Manila in July.

Ala said Echanis could not have been taken part in the mass killings in the 1980s as he was then detained in Bicutan at the time.

Ala said KMP lawyers will seek the dismissal of the charges against Echanis, which he called trumped and politically-motivated, in Leyte today.

Aside from multiple murder and kidnapping, Franco said Echanis also has a pending case in Metro Manila for illegal possession of firearms.

Echanis who was denied bail by Abando, will be turned over to the Police Regional Office 8 in Leyte .

In a press statement last night, KMP condemned the arrest of Echanis at the Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura and National Federation of Sugar Workers Conference for Genuine Agrarian Reform in Brgy. Calumangan.

Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, chairman of KMP and concurrent president of ANAKPAWIS party list, said “it seems that Ka Randy is the first victim of the opening salvo of Gen. Esperon's term extension and his vow to attack critics of the regime”.

The KMP statement said the conference hall was surrounded by a police formation led by Inspectors Dinsing and Dehocos and they were in civilian clothes and wearing bonnets. The statement added that they disrupted the conference and harassed the participants.

The warrant of arrest used was the same as that the Department of Justice used against Ocampo in April last year.

Mariano said it is clear that the case is fabricated and politically motivated, and demanded that Rchanis be freed immediately.

He also said this is all part of the continued offensive and crack down of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime against its critics. *GPB

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