NPA leader who allegedly ordered the monitoring of Jonas was already arrested in May 2006 – Burgos mom

By Ronron
August 30, 2007

One of the three recent witnesses to the abduction of Jonas Joseph Burgos had claimed that the order to monitor the movement of the latter came from Delfin de Guzman, alias Ka Baste, the leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Bulacan province.

Emerito Lipio, alias Ka Tibo, a self-confessed active member of the NPA, said last Tuesday that in early April of this year, de Guzman instructed him and fellow NPA member, Marlon Manuel, alias Ka Carlo, “to conduct discreet surveillance and investigation on the activities of Burgos, allegedly known as Ka Ramon in the communist movement.”

Quoting Lipio, Sr. Supt. Joel Napoleon Coronel of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Division (CIDD) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) described de Guzman as the provincial chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in Bulacan.

Lipio said in a news conference at Camp Crame that the leadership of the NPA has been doubting the sincerity of Burgos because of his frequent departure from their camp without asking permission, and his reported unauthorized meetings with rebel returnees and a government soldier.

Burgos, said to be a political instructor and intelligence officer of the movement, was also suspected of pilfering organizational funds, police quoted Lipio to have said.

Because of this task, Lipio said he and Manuel followed Burgos on April 28 of this year at the Ever Gotesco Mall in Commonwealth, Quezon City where they witnessed the abduction of Burgos by four armed men.

Lipio said two of the four abductors were a certain Dante and a certain Enso, both he knew as NPA members from another unit because they were introduced to him earlier by de Guzman also.

But Mrs. Edith Burgos, the mother of Jonas, pointed out Thursday that a certain Delfin de Guzman was also arrested already last May 2006 by government forces.

A check by Manila Shimbun in its archive stories revealed that indeed the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) presented last May 22, 2006 a certain Delfin de Guzman, whom they introduced as the Bulacan Provincial Party Committee Secretary and acting Regional Secretary of the Central Luzon Regional Party of the CPP-NPA.

De Guzman was presented by then AFP chief of staff Gen. Generoso Senga and PNP Deputy Chief for Operations Deputy Director Gen. Avelino Razon, Jr. eleven days after he was allegedly arrested.

Senga and Razon said in the news conference that de Guzman, 38 then, was arrested on May 11 in his house in Norzagaray, Bulacan by virtue of a warrant for murder issued by a Regional Trial Court in Malolos City. The case was in relation to the murder in 2003 of Supt. Tomas de las Armas, chief of police of Angat town, same province.

Senga said then that de Guzman allegedly admitted to have played an active role in the killings of Romulo Kintanar in 2003, and Arturo Tabara in 2004, both in Quezon City, for their defection from the communist movement.

Because of his status in the organization, de Guzman, according to Senga, was going to be placed at that time under the custody of the Intelligence Service of the AFP (ISAFP) with the permission of the court that issued the arrest warrant.

“If he was placed under the custody of the ISAFP, it would be impossible for him to have made that order (to Lipio),” Mrs. Burgos said of de Guzman in a phone interview.

The inconsistency, she noted, only indicates that the PNP and AFP are trying to create a picture “to cover up the truth” that her son was really abducted by the military.

Mrs. Burgos said she even found out that Lipio was already reported by media before to be among the seven members of transport group PISTON arrested by the military in Pampanga.

Based on an archive story of the Manila Shimbun, Lipio and six others were allegedly nabbed by elements of the Army’s 56th Infantry Battalion on July 3, 2006 in Angeles City because they are being suspected of being NPA members, PISTON Secretary General Steve Ranjo had said.

The six others were later released, while Lipio was missing until his presentation last Tuesday.

“This is what I am saying that I really have nothing against these witnesses because they are just being used by our government. They are also victims,” Mrs. Burgos said.

Told yesterday about the observation regarding “Delfin de Gumzan,” Army spokesman Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, Jr. said: “Apparently, the (Delfin de Guzman) he (Lipio) was referring to is not the same (Delfin de Guzman) that was arrested last year.”

Torres would not know, however, if the “Delfin de Guzman” arrested last year remains in military custody. A check made with an officer of the ISAFP remains unanswered as of press time.

In a statement, the CPP supported the statement of Mrs. Burgos that her son is not a member of the NPA, nor is Lipio and de Guzman, and that the recent development in the police investigation is just to “cover up the role of the AFP in the abduction of Jonas Burgos.”

Coronel could not immediately be reached for comment on the claims of Mrs. Burgos and the CPP.

Responding to Mrs. Burgos’ reiteration that the Army remains their suspect based on the discovery inside an Army camp in Bulacan of the license plates (TAB-194) of the getaway car used by the abductors of Jonas, Torres said: “If we have witnesses or any pieces of evidence related to the case, we should submit it to the court… And we should respect the decision of the court.”

The Burgos family has filed a petition for habeas corpus against the AFP before the Court of Appeals for the organization to produce Jonas./DMS