The National Democratic Front of the Philippines and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo yesterday joined other groups in ganging up on the police for the arrest of the deputy secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid sa Pilipinas, suspected of being a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines Central Committee and facing charges for 15 counts of in Leyte .

Senior Supt. Rosendo Franco, provincial police director, said this shows that Randal Echanis is a very important person to them.

“Why is everybody so interested in Echanis and alarmed over his arrest, when they are claiming that he is just an ordinary peasant worker?” Franco asked.

Echanis, alias Ka Randy, was apprehended by intelligence operatives of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office on Monday, at a farmer training center in Brgy. Calumangan, Bago City . The offices had an arrest warrant issued by Judge Ephraim Abando.

Both Negrense-priest-turned rebel Luis Jalandoni, chairperson of the NDFP negotiating panel, and Ocampo decried what they call the illegal arrest of Echanis.

Jalandoni said the arrest of Echanis, also a member of the NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee, is a flagrant violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees.

Echanis, Ocampo and exiled CPP leader Jose Maria Sison, were among the 56 respondents in the multiple murder charges, related to the discovery of mass graves in Hilongos, Leyte.

Franco said Echanis, reportedly a secretary of the CPP Peasant Committee, also faces kidnapping and illegal possession of firearms charges in Tuguegarao and Metro Manila.

Ocampo claimed the case against him, Echanis and others had been on hold since April last year, as the Supreme Court granted him provisional release on bail, while the Court deliberated on his petition for certiorari and prohibition

Jalandoni said these violations of binding peace agreements seriously jeopardize the possibility of the resumption of formal peace talks with the government. He also claimed that Echanis is a member of NDFP delegation to peace talks in Norway .

KMP and its affiliated organizations in Negros Occidental also went into an uproar after the police transferred Echanis on an Air Force helicopter from Negros Occidental to Cebu yesterday, before his endorsement to the court in Leyte today.

Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, chairman of KMP, called the case against Echanis “fabricated and politically-motivated.

“What politics they are talking about? Echanis is not a politician,” Franco said, adding “We are just implementing the law by serving the arrest warrant”.

He added that it was the group of Echanis that harassed them by preventing the policemen for serving the arrest warrant, which is tantamount to harboring criminals.*GPB

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