Fugitive rebel leader can’t bury his mother

GENERAL SANTOS CITY – The Mindanao spokesperson of the National Democratic Front (NDF) last saw his mother in 1992. 

Last week his 98-year old mother died.

But NDF-Mindanao spokesman Jorge Madlos, a.k.a. Ka Oris, cannot attend the burial of his mother.  Neither can his only son Vincent Isagani. 

Both have standing warrants of arrest.

Madlos, along with infamous retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, carries a P5.6 million bounty for his capture. 

Following the death of iconic NPA figure Gregorio ‘Ka Roger’ Rosal, Madlos has become the face of the communist-led rebellion in the Philippine countryside.

He would not have minded being a rebel fugitive.  After all, it was an option and a dedication he long ago embraced.

But for his only son to also miss representing him in the burial of his mother is an issue that strike into the heart of his struggle for justice.

Innocent?

He said his son has never been involved in the underground movement.  Vincent Isagani used to be a call center agent in Cebu.

Last week, he told his son to go into hiding to avoid arrest.

It turned out that a warrant of arrest has been against issued against Vincent Isagani for his alleged involvement in the recent attack on Platinum Group Metal Corp in Claver town last year.  

Ka Oris has a string of warrants of arrest for alleged armed attacks against military and civilian targets. Among them, the October 2011 NPA attack at the Taganito Mines and two other sister mining companies in Surigao del Sur.

Madlos however said his son is innocent and was not involved in activism even during his college days.

“With my son’s right denied and his liberty in peril, my very last chance to join my family in paying our last respects to my beloved mother was completely deprived,” Madlos told a Davao reporter.

He said he was counting on his son to represent him for duration of the bereavement.

Underground activist

Ka Oris is among the few remaining homegrown activists from Mindanao who went underground following the declaration of Martial Law in 1972.

He said less than ten of them are still active in the underground movement and many have died fighting the Marcos dictatorship.

Madlos was a government scholar at the Central Mindanao University in Maramag, Bukidnon when student protest movement swept across the country.  He was arrested in in 1985 but was released shortly after the 1986 EDSA Revolt by President Corazon Aquino. 

He rejoined the underground movement after his release.  He was again captured in 1990 but escaped from detention.

He appealed to President Benigno Aquino III to lift the arrest warrant against Vincent Isagani and allow his son to pay their last respect for his mother. – Rappler.com