Jeffrey Celiz (aka Ka Eric), a former rebel, claimed that Bayan Muna Representative Teddy Casiño was a member of the Community Party of the Philippines (CPP).
According to Celiz, he was a communist rebel when Casiño was the national president of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP).
“I was the regional chairman [of the CEGP] — though I know him also to be part of the CPP,” Celiz said.
“I’m not going to be a hypocrite,” he added, speaking partly in Filipino. “We were all CPP. They are still part of the Communist Party, and worse, they deny it. They are not admitting to the nation,” the former rebel added.
Teddy Casiño, in a statement, denied Ka Eric’s allegations.
“I was the national president of the CEGP from 1991-1994 when Celiz was active in our Iloilo chapter. My God, that was 29 years ago during our student days! I cannot see how on this basis, he can drag my name into his web of lies,” Casiño said.
“Celiz presents no proof or evidence of the accusations he makes against me, other than his and his military handlers’ belief that because I am a prominent activist, then I must also be a high ranking leader of the CPP-NPA-NDF,” he added.
Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño member of CPP – Ka Eric
In 1991, Teddy Casiño was elected national president of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), an alliance of over 700 student publications nationwide.
He eventually graduated from UPLB with the degree of BA Sociology in 1993, with his thesis bringing him to faraway Pamplona town in Cagayan Valley, where he studied the impact of Church activism on rural communities.
Meanwhile, Senators questioned Celiz’s inclusion on President Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called narco-list in 2016.
Celiz was identified as a member of the House of Representatives in the said list, which he never was as per several reports released earlier.
“I was included in that list because it was part of the government project to go out and dismantle the drug syndicates in Iloilo City,” he explained to the senators. “I used that cover because I am working in many instances in covert operations.”