Former communist marries jailor at Camp Capinpin

Manila: A jailed leftist woman left her comrades and married her jailor after three months of courtship in a military camp in suburban Rizal, a local paper has said.

"His battalion came over for training. We met and got acquainted here [at the Army's Camp Capinpin in Tanay Rizal].

"He seemed serious and I love him," Jenilyn Pizarro, 19, was quoted by the Inquirer as saying.

The 23-year-old Private First Class Matibay, an alias, succeeded in wooing her while she was jailed in December last year, Pizarro said in an exclusive interview with the Inquirer.

Three military officers were some of their wedding sponsors at St Martin's Chapel in Camp Capinpin on March 20, she said, adding that her parents were also present to witness the special event.

Communist claim

Pizarro and 42 others, including six medical practitioners, were arrested during a seminar on health-care in Morong town, Rizal on February 6, 2010.

They all denied police allegations that they were members of the New People's Army (NPA), the armed wing of the 40-year-old Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

They also denied accusations that they were learning how to make explosives during the seminar.

They were eventually referred to as the "Morong 43."

Pizzaro claimed the NPA did not act on her complaint of sexual harassment in an underground camp in Quezon, southern Luzon.

Other women were also sexually harassed in the camp, said Pizarro, adding,

"They [communists] did not respect women even if they say men and women are equal."

"I told them [former comrades] it's better to live normally than hide all your life," said Pizarro when asked why she left the life of a communist rebel.

"I want to live together with my family," she added.

Damage claim

Last week, two doctors, a nurse and three registered midwives, filed a P15-million damage suit against former President Gloria Arroyo, her former defence chief, two former military chiefs and six incumbent military and police officials for physical and psychological torture.

Last December, government prosecutors officially dropped charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives filed against them.

It was a confidence building measure with the resumption of stalled peace talks between the Philippine government and the communist National Democratic Front (NDF) early this year. Negotiations between the two parties began in 1992.