MANILA – The Philippine National Police on Sunday said the wife of an alleged communist leader arrested last week may also face charges.
Vicente Ladlad, a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, was arrested Thursday night in Novaliches, Quezon City for illegal possession of firearms.
Ladlad’s wife, Fides Lim-Ladlad, claimed that the guns found in her husband’s possession were planted by the police. She challenged the PNP to test the guns for fingerprints, which she said would prove that these were planted.
Fides could face charges of obstruction of justice for trying to block a police car that was carrying her husband to a police camp, said PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde.
“I must reiterate we are a nation of laws not of men. And violation of laws has its consequences,” he said in a statement.
Albayalde also maintained that there was nothing anomalous about the communist leader’s arrest.
“The confiscation of high-powered firearms and explosives in the possession of Ladlad and 2 others is a result of a lawful search made by the police witnessed and certified by officials of the Homeowners Association,” he said.
The PNP said it found an AK47 with bayonet, an M16A1 assault rifle, two cal. 45 pistols, and 9mm pistol, several loaded magazines, 4 grenades, and “subversive documents” when they arrested Ladlad and 2 others.
Fides on Saturday “apologized” to Albayalde for her actions.
“I hope General Albayalde will find it in his heart to forgive me when his charming wife, Mrs. Albayalde, will also obstruct justice with her bare hands by blocking a police van because he’s imprisoned inside and she knows not where he will be brought, or what perchance will happen to him because of a state malady called evidencia plantida de pulis,” she said in a statement released by human rights group Karapatan.
Meanwhile, exiled communist leader Jose Ma. Sison called Ladlad’s arrest a “bad precedent” for the peace talks with communist rebels. (ABS-CBN News)
