MANILA – Contrary to the claim of KARAPATAN, alleged National Democratic Front consultant Eduardo Sarmiento, who has been sentenced by a Filipino court to a 40-year jail term, is not covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees or JASIG, a government statement said Friday.
It said Sarmiento was not included in any of the JASIG lists submitted by the NDF to the GPH Panel in 2001 and 2004.
The NDF claimed that Eduardo Sarmiento is in the 2001 JASIG list carrying the assumed name of “Leah Samar”. However his release is subject to the conditions agreed upon by the GPH and NDF in the Oslo Joint Statement signed on 21 February 2011, as follows: “Based on the Joint Notes dated January 18, 2011, the GPH shall continue to work on appropriate measures to effect the expeditious release or all or most of the 14 NDF listed JASIG consultants and personalities before the second round of formal talks, subject to verification as provided in the JASIG Supplemental Agreement dated June 26, 1996, (underscoring provided) or on the basis of humanitarian and other practical reasons.”
The required verification process to confirm the identities of members of this group using assumed names, including Eduardo Sarmiento, failed. In July 2011 representative of both Panels met in The Netherlands, together with the Norwegian Third Party Facilitator and the Archbishop of Utrecht, to verify if the NDF’s detained alleged consultants were indeed JASIG-covered, the government said.
“They agreed to open a sealed envelope stored in a safety deposit box by the parties in 2003. The envelope was supposed to hold the photos and real names of NDF consultants using aliases. But upon opening, the envelope did not contain actual photos but only diskettes which the NDF claimed to have contained the photos. However, the NDF could not decrypt the diskettes,” the statement said.
As a logical consequence of the failure of the verification process due to the NDF’s non-compliance with its requirements, JASIG has been rendered inoperative for those using assumed names and aliases. However, JASIG remains effective for those NDF personalities using real names, including those who have been recognized by the GPH as involved in the peace negotiations.
“As it has consistently done in the past, the GPH has been releasing detainees based on its judicial and legal processes, and as part of confidence-building measures for the talks. In view of the above, we reiterate that Eduardo Sarmiento is not covered by the JASIG,” it said.
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