CCTA: ‘Alternative Venue’ in Search for
Truth, Accountability
With the dismissal of
the impeachment complaints against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at
the House of Representatives last September, the people have no recourse
left but to take over the search for truth. This is the rationale behind
the formation and recent opening of the Citizens’ Congress for Truth and
Accountability (CCTA), say its convenors and members, which has proceeded
with its business in an orderly fashion despite threats and disruptions
from the Macapagal-Arroyo camp.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
The truth shall set us free:
Members of the presidium of the Citizen's Congress
for Truth and Accountability, headed by former Vice President Teofisto
Guingona, center,
take their oath
PHOTO BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
With the dismissal of
the impeachment complaints against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at
the House of Representatives last September, the people have no recourse
left but to take over the search for truth. This is the rationale behind
the formation and recent opening of the Citizens’ Congress for Truth and
Accountability (CCTA), say its convenors and members.
The CCTA was
initiated by various groups which have called for Macapagal-Arroyo’s
resignation or removal from office because of the “brazen killing” of the
impeachment process which “has denied the public the chance to know the
truth and demand accountability of the President for the various crimes
and misdemeanors for which she is being accused,” say the CCTA convenors,
who include Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera – 1993 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for
Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts – and Dr. Maria
Serena Diokno, professor of history at the University of the Philippines
(UP). Other convenors are: Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB, prioress,
Missionary Benedictine Sisters, St. Scholastica’s College; Bro. Edmundo
Fernandez of the De La Salle Brothers; and Bp. Solito Tuquero of the
United Methodist Church of the Philippines.
The concept paper for
the CCTA describes it as “an alternative venue to present, examine and
perpetuate the body of evidence against the President and determine her
accountability as well as that of other public officials.”
“This people’s
congress does not render a verdict,” said former Vice President Teofisto
Guingona, Jr., who chairs the CCTA’s presidium. “It seeks to ferret out in
an orderly proceeding the presentation of facts. It is not unjust. It
gives notice and opportunity to all who may feel aggrieved.”
Other members of the
presidium are: Merlin Magallona, former dean of the UP College of Law; UP
law professor Victoria Avena, who is also a former commissioner of the
Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG); lawyer Nasser
Marohomsalic, a former human rights commissioner; Supreme Bishop Alberto
Ramento of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI or Philippine
Independent Church); Dr. Sixto Roxas of the Maximo Kalaw Institute for
Sustainable Development; Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes of the Ecumenical
Women’s Forum; and Carmencita Karagdag of the World Council of Churches.
The presidium also has members from the various sectors – urban poor,
women, workers, peasants, and youth sitting alternately.
In the CCTA’s second
session, held on Nov. 9 at the
College of Social Work and
Community Development, University of the Philippines (UP CSWCD), the
public got a glimpse of its workings. As in a regular trial, there are
witnesses testifying under oath who are questioned by lawyers and there
are presentations of documentary evidence.
There is also
opportunity for the Macapagal-Arroyo to present its side of the issues
raised against it. A summons had in fact been brought to Malacañang weeks
before the opening of the CCTA.
During the first
session of the CCTA, the office of Environment Secretary Mike Defensor – a
staunch Macapagal-Arroyo ally – sent a representative, lawyer Cybill
Uytiepo, to attend as an observer. The CCTA members have been inviting her
to attend the sessions also as a participant. There are seats reserved for
representatives of Macapagal-Arroyo in the venues.
|
Empty seats: President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies opted not to participate in the
proceedings but seats were reserved for them
PHOTO BY ARKIBONG BAYAN |
The CCTA will gather
and study the evidences to be presented to it, with assistance from select
members of the House of Representatives impeachment team and private
lawyers serving as lawyer-delegates.
The difference
between the CCTA and a regular court, as Guingona stated, is that it will
not render a verdict, but will only formulate recommendations. Its
findings will be presented to the public and, in particular, to religious
institutions like the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP),
Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (AMRSP),
National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), Philippine Council
of Evangelical Churches (PCEC), the media, schools, as well as public
institutions like Congress, the Office of the Ombudsman, and appropriate
international bodies.
Charges
Macapagal-Arroyo
faced three impeachment complaints in Congress earlier this year,
following the surfacing of tapes containing conversations between her and
an election official, widely believed to be Commission on Elections
Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. The conversations appeared to deal with
the rigging of the 2004 presidential election.
The first complaint
was filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano on the basis of the taped conversations,
now known by the moniker “Hello Garci” tapes, under the impeachable
offense of betraying the public trust. A second complaint, filed by lawyer
Jose Rizaldo Lopez, was reportedly very similar to the Lozano complaint.
Cause-oriented groups and concerned citizens filed an amended version of
the Lozano complaint, expanding its scope to include bribery, graft and
corruption, and culpable violation of the Constitution, with complicity in
human rights violations by state forces under her watch falling under
culpable violation of the Constitution. All three complaints were
dismissed at the House of Representatives last September.
The charges being
taken up by the CCTA are:
-
Under electoral fraud, issues related to
the “Hello Garci” tapes, the use of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (rich
golden harvest) or fertilizer funds, the transfer of the Overseas
Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) trust fund to the Philippine
Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), and the use of the road
users’ tax fund all for “electioneering purposes, and other instances of
fraud in the 2004 election;
-
Under political killings and other human
rights violations, the summary executions or extrajudicial killings as
well as abductions and involuntary disappearances of activists and
others critical of the policies of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration,
as well as violent dispersals of protest actions under the calibrated
preemptive response policy; and
- Graft and
corruption, which covers issues related to the NorthRail and Venable
contracts among others.
The CCTA took up
election fraud on its second session, held Nov. 9 at the UP College of
Social Work
and Community Development (CSWCD).
In the Nov. 9
session, Segundo Tabayoyong, former chief of the National Bureau of
Investigation (NBI)’s questioned documents division testified that
Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro engaged in what he
called “second-generation electoral fraud,” which he said involves the
tampering of election returns. “First-generation electoral fraud,” he
said, involves “ballot-switching, ballot box-snatching, fake ballots and
dagdag-bawas (vote-padding and vote-shaving).”
Patriotism and Defiance:
Delegates to CCTA end their first session, November 8, by singing
Bayan Ko, a patriotic song which became popular during protests against
Martial Law.
PHOTO BY ARKIBONG BAYAN
During the counting
period after the 2004 presidential election, the church-based election
monitoring group Patriots acquired copies of discrepant election returns
and certificates of canvass from several provinces. Abdullah Dalidig,
chair of the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) in
Lanao del Sur, a province in southern Philippines, corroborated
Tabayoyong’s testimony by presenting election documents from the said
province. He said, “This is the dirtiest election in Lanao del Sur”.
Meanwhile, former
Solicitor-General Frank Chavez and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP
or Philippine Peasant Movement) chair Danilo Ramos testified on the use of
the fertilizer funds for electioneering purposes. Chavez presented
documents from the Department of Budget and management (DBM) on the
release of P728 million and P1.1 billion in fertilizer funds immediately
before and during the campaign period.
The money, Chavez
said, never reached farmers but was diverted to fund Macapagal-Arroyo’s
campaign. Agusan del Sur Rep. Rodolfo Plaza corroborated Chavez’s
testimony, saying his district did not receive any money from the
fertilizer funds even as his name had appeared in the list of recipients.
Ramos, meanwhile,
said the supposed release of the fertilizer funds during harvest time,
when farmers do not use fertilizers, was questionable.
Threats
The CCTA has been
able to proceed so far with its business in an orderly fashion, even as
its members have been facing daily threats of sedition cases and the
proceedings have been met with disruption attempts from Malacañang allies.
“The organizers of
the People’s Court may be held liable for Inciting to
Sedition under Article 142 of the Revised Penal Code,” Executive
Secretary Eduardo Ermita stated in a Nov. 9 memorandum.
Guingona had pointed
out the day before that the CCTA “does not usurp” any public office or
function. “It only exercises acts in accordance with the Constitution,
specifically Article XI, Section 15 of the same,” Guingona said.
Article XI, Section
15 of the Constitution provides that: “The
State shall respect the role of independent people's organizations to
enable the people to pursue and protect, within the democratic framework,
their legitimate and collective interests and aspirations through peaceful
and lawful means.
“People’s organizations are bona fide associations of citizens with
demonstrated capacity to promote the public interest and with identifiable
leadership, membership, and structure.”
A day before, members
of the party-list group Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD),
known to be supportive of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration, had
interrupted the proceedings by standing up and shouting derogatory remarks
against the CCTA organizers. After ignoring instructions that they take
the seats intended for representatives of President Arroyo, they were led
out of the venue of the first session, the UP Theater, and were beaten by
outraged delegates.
On Nov. 9, ANAD
members staged a picket outside the UP CSWCD just as the proceedings were
about to begin. One of the group’s leaders, Jun Alamo, who claimed to be a
former member of both the legal organization Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May
First Movement) and the clandestine New People’s Army (NPA), branded the
CCTA as a “communist congress” in an interview with reporters.
Asked whether all the
members of the CCTA were communists, Alamo said: “Not all. There are some
who are ignorant and are being deceived by the communists.”
When asked who among
the CCTA members were communists, he identified Bayan Muna (People First)
Reps. Teddy Casiño and Satur Ocampo, as well as others whom he described
merely as “incumbent congressmen.” When asked if that included Reps.
Francis Escudero and Alan Peter Cayetano, Alamo did not answer. Asked
again who among the CCTA members were communists, Alamo told a reporter:
“You are putting me in a very difficult position.”
The ANAD is a group
of Macapagal-Arroyo allies based in Cebu province, central Philippines. It
has run twice for the party-list elections but lost in both instances. It
is led by Pastor Jun Alcover, who claims to be a former member of the
underground Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National
Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).
The second session at
the UP CSWCD ended without incident. The CCTA will resume its sessions on
November 15 and 16 at the University of
Makati.
According to UN Judge ad litem Atty. Romeo Capulong people
have been calling the CCTA secretariat asking to be allowed to present
testimony and evidence against the President. “The proceedings have
encouraged other potential witnesses to come out,” he said. Bulatlat
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