Ilocos-Cordillera reds chieftain surrender to high school pal – Esperon

June 14, 2020 Provincial

LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET (June 11, 2020) — Annie Tauli, 70, alleged chairperson of the Ilocos- Cordillera Regional Party Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines surrendered to authorities early Thursday morning from her hometown in Besao, Mt. Province.
Tauli peacefully submitted herself to authorities to clear her name, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said amid allegations of her being a high ranking CPP leader.
Esperon, who was here since Wednesday afternoon said, he personally knew Tauli as a decent person as she was her classmate at the Philippine Science High School.
They were among the first batch of graduates from the PSHS in 1969. Tauli, alleged as chairperson of the Ilocos Cordillera Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army (CPP-NPA) and wife of slain CPP-NPA Military Commissioner Julius Giron turned herself in via the joint efforts by the military and police facilitated by Philippine Army’s 503rd Brigade commander Brigadier General Henry Duyaen, Cordillera police director Brigadier General R’win Pagkalinawan and Retired Philippine Army General Ramon Yog-Yog.
Accompanied by her younger sister, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Rights Of Indigenous Peoples, the alleged rebel leader was flown to Baguio City.
Secretary Esperon said Tauli will stay at the PNP Chief’s cottage at Navy Base compound here under their care, and not on any jail.
Despite her alleged posts at the rebel movement, Brig. General Pagkalinawan said, “she has no case.”
Tauli, allowed to speak told journalists she decided to talk with Sec. Esperon after two months of being stranded at their ancestral home in Besao since the quarantine began.
Her alleged “party husband” Julius Giron, alleged chairman of the CPP in Northern Luzon and a member of the CPP-NPA’s Executive Committee and a CPP Military Commission and Pulitburo member, was killed with Dr. Lourdes Tan Torres (or Ma. Lourdes Dineros Tangco alias Tita), also an alleged member of the CPP Executive Committee and also a member of the CPP’s National Health Bureau, and a male serving as Giron’s security aid at a hideout along Hamada Subdivision here on March 13.
The trio allegedly tried to fight it out with soldiers from the Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) and policemen from the National Capital Region, Cordillera and Baguio City but were outsmarted and killed.
Cordillera police said the authorities were serving a Search Warrant for Violation of RA 10591 (Comprehensive Law on Firearms and Ammunition) from the National Capital Judicial Region issued 2nd Vice Executive Judge Ferdinand C Baylon and Warrant of Arrests for Rebellion, murder, arson and frustrated murder against the three. A loaded M16 rifle, a Colt caliber 45 pistol and Rock Island caliber 45, three hand grenades, a long stainless magazine for M16 with bullets; a laptop, three cellular phones, and a 3 USB thumb drive were seized from the trio.
The CPP, vowing to avenge “the merciless execution of the trio”, though belied the authorities’ allegations that the trio had firearms.
“Twist and Turn” Baguio-based human rights group Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA)-Karapatan however claimed Tauli was “picked-up”, belying authorities’ claim that she surrendered.
As a senior citizen, (Tauli) “has long since retired and gone home to Besao, where she is the president of the Batil-ang Peypeyen Clan,” said Karapatan secretary general Kristina Palabay said Tauli is accordingly one of the 10 children of Anglican priest Rev. Alejandro Tauli and Cirena Ambucay of Besao, Mt. Province.
She graduated elementary from Easter School in Baguio City and was among the first batch of graduates from PSHS with Esperon in 1969.
She was also a teacher in Brent School up to 1980 and became the coordinator of the Cordillera Studies Program of the Cordillera Schools Group (CSG) based in Easter School up to 1984.
She reportedly had conducted independent research and has written several papers on Cordillera history and issues. She was among the 300 plus participants in the Cordillera People’s Congress which founded the left-leaning Cordillera People’s Alliance in 1984.
But as a senior citizen, who has since retired, she led the organization of the Batil-ang Peypeyen Clan for several years.
“Besao villagers will attest that she has been very involved in local activities such as the cooperative, Parents-Teachers Association and the like,” said Palabay.
Most recently, she implemented the TUKLAS project on the documentation of the Batangan system of pine forest management, she added.
Artemio A. Dumlao/ABN