Is he the “Ka Eric” he claims to be? A first person account of one who knew Jeffrey Celiz has contested that he was no cadre ever in the CPP-NPA-NDF. And the contestation was corroborated.
Celiz, the program anchor in the embattled television network SMNI of the self-appointed “son of god” Apollo Quiboloy, has led us to believe that he was in the National Operations Command of the New Peoples Army from 2002 to 2015. His claimed insider status makes him red tag as rabidly as the controversial Duterte propagandist Lorraine Tablang Badoy Partosa.
But has the military’s intelligence community checked – vetted — the veracity of Celiz’s claims? Or is the military in connivance with the fake story? It is a public interest issue of accountability because he airs that claim in the realm of public information.
Even congressmen in the House of Representatives hearing the SMNI legislative franchise case kept on referring to him as Ka Eric. Do we have another impostor in Quiboloy’s SMNI that is empowered by a Republic Act granting a legislative franchise? What is the fact and what is the fiction?
The account of the human rights lawyer Jobert Pahilga stands on the years of his close friendship with Celiz. Pahilga can chronologize his years of association with Celiz. By his reckoning, there never was a time when Celiz went underground to be in the national operations of the New People’s Army.
Jobert Ilarde Pahilga is executive director of SENTRA, the Sentro para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (Center for Genuine Agrarian Reform). He is a major partner of the JI Pahilga Law Office.
It began in November 2020 when Celiz accused Pahilga as a recruiter of the CPP- NPA-NDF. Pahilga’s reply was then published by CNN Philippines on its Twitter account: “I know him. I dare say he lied about his so-called deep involvement with the CPP NPA.”
On November 3, 2020, Manila Today published Pahilga’s story of the real Celiz.
Pahilga begins with the claims of Celiz, some of which were: that he was a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines New Peoples Army for 27 years; that he studied in UP Diliman in 1988; that he was recruited to the underground Kabataang Makabayan in September 1988; that he was deployed by the CPP to the Visayas where he was organizer in the UP Visayas; that he was deployed to the National Operations Command of the NPA in 2002 and worked there until March 2015.
Pahilga knows Celiz like the palm of his hand. “Mr. Celiz did not, and never studied, at UP Diliman. I know this because he was my classmate at West Visayas State University. In 1988, he was studying at Iloilo City High School (ICHS). He then studied at West Visayas State University (WVSU) from 1989 to 1994. There, he became the editor of Forum-Dimension, the official student publication of WVSU. Mr. Celiz WAS a friend. We were both student activists at WVSU.”
On Celiz’s claim that he began his underground work in September 1988, he was still in high school then. Pahilga continues on their student activism, which he says actually started much later, in 1994: “From 1994 Celiz became a full-time activist until 2004. He was the spokesperson of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Panay (Bayan-Panay) and became its chairperson in 2000 until 2004.”
And then Pahilga covers the years when Celiz said he became a communist cadre in the National Operations Command of the NPA:
“In 2006, Jeffrey asked for my help. He told me his life was in danger from the military and thus wanted a sanctuary. I allowed him to stay in our house in Metro Manila for several days, and then in my friends’ house. I and my clients provided him allowance because he had no work and he had valid fears to be killed by the military as he was the ‘face’ of the left in Panay Island particularly in Iloilo City at that time.”
“From 2006 until 2017, Jeffrey and I frequently met in Metro Manila. At those times, he was also staying in Tagaytay City at his uncle’s house or the vacation houses his uncle maintained. In February 2008, he permanently stayed in Tagaytay City to teach English language courses in a Korean school which I, Jeffrey, and his uncle helped put up.”
“In 2008, he told me he wanted to work abroad as waiter but he was afraid that there might be pending cases against him. So he sought the help of the late Raul Gonzales, then Secretary of Justice, under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to check whether there are cases filed against him. But he was not able to leave for abroad as he supposedly failed in table setting. In December 2008, he returned to Iloilo City.”
“In March 2009, he worked at Iloilo City Hall as political liaison officer of Mayor Jerry Treñas. In July 2009, Celiz was known to have worked at Northern Samar as community facilitator and organizer for a joint project of Masipag and Plan Philippines. In February 2010, he left the project and returned to Iloilo City again.”
“In August or September 2009, we met in Iloilo City. I was then seeking his advice for my plan to run for the position of Municipal Mayor of my hometown in Antique. We then frequently met in Iloilo City. He also would go to our house in my hometown. At that time, Celiz also served as political strategist of then Iloilo City Vice-Mayor Jed Mabilog who was intending to run for Mayor for the 2010 elections. He actively campaigned for Mabilog during the elections . . .”
“In June 2010, after Mr. Mabilog won the mayoralty position of Iloilo City, Celiz was given a plum position in the city hall. He then was reportedly able to corner three lots, instead of only one, in Barangay So-ok, Arevalo District, and stayed there with his family. That earned him graft suits from his nemesis Manuel Mejorada before the Ombudsman. Mayor Mabilog was reelected in 2013 and in 2016. Celiz remained at his service and later became his spokesperson.”
And then Celiz local government career shifted to the drugs trade. Pahilga continues:
“In 2015, he was linked to the so-called Dragon Drug Syndicate of spouses Melvin and Merriam Odicta of Iloilo City. It was public knowledge in Iloilo City that spouses Odicta even gave him a car and an M16 rifle.”
“On August 7, 2016, President Duterte prominently mentioned Celiz’s name as a drug personality in Iloilo City and referred to him as “Bayan Congressman Celiz”. During that time, President Duterte also mentioned the name of Mayor Mabilog as drug protector in Iloilo City.”
“On August 29, 2016 spouses Odicta were killed at Caticlan Jetty Port. Thereafter, Mr. Celiz went missing while Mayor Mabilog fled abroad.”
By that time, Celiz appeared to have gone into hiding, not because he was in the NPA, but because of his close association with the slain Odicta couple, for which reason Rodrigo Duterte himself linked him to the drugs trade.
Pahilga is not alone. In December 2020, Jorge Madlos, the commander and spokesperson of the National Operations Command of the NPA, says the NOC was not operational before 2016. “This is downright impossible. How can Celiz be a member of an entity that has not yet existed during the time period he claims? If the military used their intelligence, they could not have overlooked an incredible claim.”
Madlos, known as Ka Oris in the CPP-NPA-NDF, was killed in Bukidnon by the military in October 2021.
Take note: Celiz has never refuted Pahilga’s exposé. In fact, he corroborates it himself by saying his drug links was a “government project” to give him cover. That should call for another wild chapter in his life story. He has never told that story before.
When he went into hiding after Duterte included his name, Celiz must have feared for his life. He then concocted the NPA story to protect his life. By the way, if he was in the NPA, he does not say when he surrendered. Did media cover his surrender? It did not. Why was that so if he was such a high-ranking cadre in the national operations of the NPA? Because it appears he just made it up.
We should stop calling him “Ka Eric.” That is fake news. The nom-de-guerre is contrived. It’s Mr. Jeffrey Celiz plain and simple.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
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