Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 5) — The Supreme Court will hear next week a plea to free a former top leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines arrested in February for murder charges.
The third division of the court will hold oral arguments on March 12 on the habeas corpus petition filed by the son of Rodolfo “Commander Bilog” Salas, 72, former chairman of the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army.
Jody Salas contended in his petition that his father’s arrest is illegal as it violated his rights to due process and against double jeopardy.
He argued that his father could no longer be charged with murder as this offense is deemed absorbed into the rebellion charge he had been convicted for on May 10, 1991.
“In essence, petitioner expounds that Rodolfo is being subjected by the State to another vexatious and taxing trial for a crime that he had already paid for,” The Supreme Court’s notice read.
The older Salas was charged along with 37 others including CPP founding chairman Jose Maria Sison with 29 counts of murder for their purported involvement in a mass killing in Inopacan, Leyte in 1985.
In 2006, soldiers reportedly discovered a mass grave in Inopacan town. It was said to contain skeletal remains supposedly of communist rebels “purged” by their colleagues in 1985 on suspicion they were informants of the military.
