Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines.

We condemn the Philippine National Police (PNP) for the unlawful and baseless arrest of retired National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant, Ruben Abenir Saluta, 75 years old, literary writer and newspaperman, together with wife Presentacion Saluta and a female companion identified as Yvonne Losaria, last night in Doña Soledad, Barangay Labangal, General Santos City.

Saluta, who is frail and suffering from hypertension, as well as from chronic pulmonary disease, has long retired from active duty since being released from imprisonment after cases against him and his wife were dismissed from 2016 to 2019. Presentacion, likewise, suffers from hypertension and heart disease.

We condemn the police for planting firearms and explosives against Saluta et al.

The Party supports the call for the immediate release of Saluta and company.

The Party denounces the gross inhumane treatment of the elderly revolutionaries who have lived lives in service of the oppressed and exploited masses.

We call on human rights defenders, as well as journalists and cultural workers to come to the aid of Saluta and raise the demand for their immediate freedom!

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