MANILA – Another former communist rebel has filed criminal cases against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chair Jose Maria “Joma” Sison and two other communist leaders before the Department of Justice (DOJ) Friday, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said.
In a statement, CIDG chief, Maj. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro said charges of violation of “Section 3 in relation to Section 3 (a)(b) of RA (Republic Act) 9208 as amended by RA 10364 and Section 4 (i) of RA 10364 or the “Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012” and violation of Section 10 in relation to Section 3(d) (4) of RA 7610 (Special Protection of Children against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Acts)” were filed against Sison, Lean Porquia and Karen Edaniel.
“At about 10 a.m. on Sept. 3, 2021, these cases were filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ), Padre Faura St. Malate, Manila, and were docketed under NPS Docket No. XVI-INV-21I-00283,” Ferro said.
In his complaint, former rebel Joy James Alcoser Saguino with aliases “Ka Amihan”, “Ka Che” or “Commander Che” said he was a minor and a freshman Accountancy student when recruited by Porquia and Edaniel in June 2007.
A month later, Saguino became a member of the League of Filipino Students (LFS), a front organization of the communist terrorist group (CTG) inside the UP Visayas-Iloilo Campus. He was induced to take part in some protest actions against tuition fee increase and took an active part in some LFS activities.
Later, he was indoctrinated with radicalization courses such as Maikling Kurso sa Lipunan at Rebolusyong Pilipino and many other courses with a twisted depiction of society’s situation where the sad plight of the masses was attributed to the “government’s failure to do its duty for its people and the latter was pictured as the aggressor”.
Saguino said he was recruited and joined the underground movement KM/Kabataan Makabayan on September 2007. Porquia then convinced him to run for the student council where he won.
In taking advantage of his position, Saguino, together with Porquia and Edaniel promoted communist radicalization in the university. In March 2009, he became a full-fledged CTG member at the age of 17.
In April 2009, Saguino joined the communist movement’s Southern Front, Panay Island. Thereafter, he was tasked to organize Anakbayan Chapter-Panay, another CTG front organization. He was given bigger tasks and extensive authority as Anakbayan regional spokesperson and then as national vice-Chairperson of Anakbayan for Mindanao.
As he became prominent among the national leaders of CTG, Saguino became an electoral campaign head for senatorial aspirants Liza Maza and Satur Ocampo and other party-lists under the Makabayan bloc.
Saguino also held various positions in the communist movement, the most notable of which was his designation as Guerrilla Front 20 (GF20) deputy secretary at the same time as secretary of Platoon Party Committee of Sentro ng Gravidad. In January 2017, he became GF20 front secretary and secretary of Sub-Regional Peasant Bureau (SRPB).
In September 2017, he left GF20 but continued CTG operations from October 2017 to April 2018.
In April 2018, he finally decided to leave the CTG together with witness Leo Bernaldez.
Ferro said Saguino filed these charges against the respondents in view of the hardships and exploitation he had experienced as a minor,
“A student induced to join LFS and later recruited to join the NPA where he had suffered tremendously. The victim had been used and brought in the front lines in the pursuit of their communist ideologies, in violation of aforecited criminal charges,” Ferro said.
The CPP-New People’s Army (NPA) is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
The National Democratic Front has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the Anti-Terrorism Council on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and separate part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973. (PNA)