Party Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines
February 08, 2003
The Communist Party of the Philippines today revealed that Romulo Kintanar was given a chance “to show genuine remorse and willingness to make amends for the wrongs (he has done.”
Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal, CPP spokesman explained that the CPP and the revolutionary movement uphold the policy of giving consideration and granting amnesty to individuals who are able to show genuine remorse and willingness to make adequate amends despite the seriousness of the errors they have committed.
“This policy applies to all those who have betrayed the Party and revolutionary movement,” Rosal revealed, “and this also applied to Kintanar.”
However, Rosal added that when Kintanar’s case was reviewed and finally decided by the special people’s court in 2002, “new evidences presented showed that Kintanar persisted and became further engrossed in his criminal and counter-revolutionary activities, especially after his betrayal of the Party and revolutionary movement turned overt.”
“Even worse than his criminal activities,” Rosal emphasized, “was his direct integration into the structure of the AFP, PNP, NBI and other government intelligence agencies as consultant, intelligence agent and special operative of the military and police.” At the time Kintanar was felled by the NPA, Malacanang and officials of the AFP and PNP confirmed the fact that he was then working for the government as a “military intelligence agent.”
Rosal said that Kintanar plotted with ousted Philippine National Police Chief Panfilo Lacson to assassinate Jose Ma. Sison, CPP founding chair and NDF senior political consultant in May 2000. Rosal also said that Kintanar was project officer of the failed assasination plot.
“To state it simply, he didn’t choose to ’live in peace’ and ’return to civilian life’ as others make him out to be. Instead, as part of the government’s military he chose to actively fight and wreck the revolutionary movement,” Rosal added.
Thus, according to Rosal, “the people’s court found Kintanar guilty of capital crimes deserving of capital punishment.” Moreover, Rosal explained, “as a military intelligence agent and operative involved in the planning of military operations against the revolutionary movement, he became a legimitate military target in accordance with international rules of war as stipulated in Protocol I of the 1949 Geneva Conventions.”###