PHILIPPINE
FREEDOM LEADER GIVEN LIFE SENTENCE
A Philippine court has handed down a savage sentence against a leader of the Huk resistance movement. Laging Una, "The Voice of the Filipino People," published in Los Angeles, reported on May 15:
"Silvestre Liwanag, Huk leader captured by Philippine government forces seven years ago, was sentenced to life in prison April 22 under the Anti-Subversion Law of 1957. This compounded a 10-year sentence imposed in 1963 for rebellion.
"Described as No. 3 in the hierarchy of the rebel movement, and known as Commander Linda Bie, Liwanag was betrayed by an informer out to collect a reward of 50,000 pesos [US$12,754].
“Judge Tito V. Tizon of the court of first instance of Balanga, Bataan, found Liwanag guilty on a charge that he had continued to be a member of the central committee of the Communist Party
after passagé of the Anti-Subversion ‘Law
which makes such membership a crime."
The judge rejected a defense con-
tention that the trial placed Liwanag in
double jeopardy. The judge ruled that
membership in the Communist party's high-
est body was punishable separately from
the previous trial for rebellion. Laging
Una continues:
"Liwanag was captured June 21,
1960, in barrio Kalunasan, Orion, Bataan
province, together with his wife Rosita.
He was suffering from tuberculosis and
complained that he had been given rough
treatment to force him to confess to
crimes.
"Judge Tizon could have imposed
the death sentence, but found as a 'miti-
gating circumstance' the fact that the
rebel leader was ‘a simple farmer and has
no formal education.'"
NICARAGUA ~- U.S.