Five mayors, one vice-mayor, a significant number of town councilors, together with barangay captains and officials and fisherfolk residents of six coastal towns in the first district of Batangas had issued certifications, statements of affidavits and testimonies in their individual and collective capacities clearing the name of Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalaya)- Southern Tagalog chapter chair Isabelo Alicaya.
BY GERRY ALBERT CORPUZ
Correspondent
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Bulatlat
Five mayors, one vice-mayor, a significant number of town councilors, together with barangay captains and officials and fisherfolk residents of six coastal towns in the first district of Batangas had issued certifications, statements of affidavits and testimonies in their individual and collective capacities clearing the name of Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalaya)- Southern Tagalog chapter chair Isabelo Alicaya.
Alicaya and 26 other leaders of Southern Tagalog were charged with arson, destruction of private property and conspiracy to commit rebellion for allegedly burning down a Globe cell site in Lemery, Batangas last August 2.
Reports reaching the national headquarters of Pamalakaya in Quezon City said Nasugbu Mayor Antonio Barcelon, Lian Vice-Mayor Gerardo Manalo, Balayan Mayor Emmanuel Fronda, Tuy Mayor Edgardo Calingasan, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Taal municipal head Romy Balboa and the town councilors and Lemery Mayor Alilio issued separate statements confirming the fisherfolk leader’s good moral standing in the first district of the province.
In a certification released by the Office of the Mayor in Balayan issued last Sept. 9, Mayor Fronda said Alicaya is the president of Haligi ng Batangueñong Anakdagat (Habagat), a district wide alliance of small fisherfolk affiliated with the fisherfolk group
Pamalakaya.
For his part, Lian Vice-Mayor Manalo affirmed that he personally knew Alicaya, whom he said is a resident of Barangay San Diego, vouching further that the Pamalakaya leader is an outstanding leader and a very honest person. “Mr. Alicaya is a very active leader
with unquestionable commitment to uplift the life of marginalized fisherfolks and farmers,” the Lian Vice-Mayor said in a certification issued by his office.
Tuy Mayor Calingasan said the embattled fisherfolk leader as chair of the fisherfolk group Haligi ng Batangueñong Anakdagat (Habagat) is a staunch protector of the marine environment in the province, while Mayor Barcelon of Nasugbu said Alicaya’s group is one of the accredited people’s organizations in the province by virtue of municipal resolution no.82 series of 2002.
Collective petition
Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said aside from the certifications issued by Batangas government officials, more than 1,000 fisherfolk and residents in six coastal towns in the province first district signed a collective petition urging the Batangas Regional Trial Court in Batangas City to drop the fabricated case against Alicaya and 26 other leaders of cause-oriented groups in Southern Tagalog.
“The national leadership and mass membership of Pamalakaya are grateful to the local government officials and the people of the first district of Batangas for supporting Ka Beloy and the rest of the 26 regional and provincial leaders of Southern Tagalog. This is definitely a big boost on our fight for truth and justice,” added Hicap.
Pamalakaya’s Hicap asserted that the filing of charges of arson and conspiracy to commit rebellion, stemming from an alleged burning down of a Globe cell site in Lemery, Batangas, on August 2 was the handiwork of Malacañang and the military through the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (IALAG), which is tasked by the National Security Council to orchestrate and file criminal charges against leaders and members of militant groups highly critical of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The case against the Pamalakaya leader and 26 other activists was filed by an employee of the Globe company and officers of the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines command in Southern Tagalog before the Batangas City prosecutor’s
office.
“The military and the police want the court to immediately issue the warrants so they could have the wholesale license to arrest, torture and even kill all the 27 Southern Tagalog leader activists. That’s the political-military game plan of Malacañang,” said
Hicap.
Pamalakaya said the 27 leaders are in the master list of the AFP and the PNP in Southern Tagalog who were marked as targets of the Palace-backed death squads in the region. “Currently under fire from global people for masterminding the death of 901 activists over the last seven years, the militarist regime is now carrying this kind of strategy to silence these activists from exposing and opposing the crimes of President Arroyo and her military in the region,” said Hicap.
Pamalakaya noted that the strategy of filing fabricated charges has been implemented in many regions like Central Luzon, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Mindanao regions and Negros provinces. The group said Oplan Bantay Laya II is also giving weight to the legal offensive to make sure leaders of activist groups are silenced and terrorized.(Bulatlat.com)
