This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 6, March 13-19, 2005
There Must Be
Punitive Actions Against the AFP BY
Rep. Satur C. Ocampo Why do I conclude this threat is impending?
In the first week of March, there has been a series of military actions against
members of our parties. On the first day of March, four members of the Gabriela
Women’s Party were accosted and arrested by soldiers of the Philippine Army, not
by members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) who are properly authorized
to do such arrests, in the town of Sampaloc, Quezon.The four members of the
Gabriela Women’s Party are Leonila Manalo, Nancy Elle, Aileen Ramos and Miralyn
Gamba. Only their alertness in having boarded a jeepney followed by the soldiers
and seeking recourse to the protection of the PNP in Sampaloc prevented them
from being carted away to a military camp. There was no warrant of arrest and,
subsequently, they were freed without any charges filed against them. On the 3rd of March in Tarlac, in Barangay
Paraiso of Tarlac City, Bayan Muna leader and number two councilor of Tarlac
City, Abelardo Ladera, was murdered in cold blood at past 1pm, while he was
purchasing
spare parts for his jeep. On the same afternoon another Bayan Muna leader and
the former secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan – Nueva Ecija, Danilo
Macapagal, was abducted by armed men and forcibly made to board a van that sped
away. To this day Mr. Macapagal has not been located. In Central Luzon, Mr. Speaker, this renewed
political repression h as already resulted in 11 killings and five abductions or
disappearances, only from January to the first week of March. This occurred in
the provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueve Ecija, Tarlac, Aurora and Bataan.
Apparently, Mr. Speaker, what happened in Mindoro in the years 2001-2003 where
several killings, abduction and disappearances occurred, is now a threatening
phenomenon in Central Luzon and also beginning to spread in the provinces of
Quezon, Laguna and Batangas in Southern Tagalog. This is not the first time, Mr. Speaker,
that I stand up in this Chamber to make similar denunciations of political
repression against our political party and the people’s organizations supportive
of our party. In the 12th Congress, this august Body approved a resolution that
led the House Committee on Human Rights to make an investigation in the series
of
killings of more than 40 members of Bayan Muna over a period of almost three
years. There was an investigation and there were recommendations by the
committee, among them the freezing of the promotion of Col. Jovito Palparan, who
was tagged as the “butcher of Mindoro”. Apparently, the recommendation of the
committee had fallen on deaf ears, there was no positive action. Instead, Col.
Palparan was subsequently promoted to brigadier general. And after his stint as
the Chief of military contingent sent to Iraq, which was withdrawn to save the
life of overseas Filipino worker Angelo de la Cruz, he has been promoted to head
the 8th Infantry Division in Samar. It is his units that were harassing now the
people at the headquarters of Bayan Muna in Catarman. The questions that I raise again, Mr.
Speaker are: First, is the government, this present government, determined to
illegalize Bayan Muna. Anakpawis and Gabriela Women’s Party, or is it set on
stopping the growth and influence of our parties as defenders and advocates of
the people’s interest and welfare in this legislature and through the democratic
mass movement? Second, is it the government’s policy to
make no distinction between the underground revolutionary movement and the
aboveground legal democratic mass movement, as the Armed Forces of the
Philippines and the Philippine National Police blatantly do, and thus consider
as legitimate targets for armed attack or physical elimination both those
underground and those aboveground? Third, have the Armed Forces operating units
been given police powers to make arrests, searches, and seizures on civilians?
If so, since when and on what legal basis was this power given to them? In so
many instances in Mindoro before and recently in Quezon, the Philippine National
Police leadership acknowledged its powerlessness to interfere with supposed
military operations tagged as “Internal Security Operations” or ISO even
when civilians are very evident victims of human rights violation arising from
such military operations. The most appalling of all the recent
developments, Mr. Speaker, was a series of briefings that the Northern Luzon
Command gave to government entities, including the Department of Justice, in
relation to the unresolved issues in Hacienda Luisita after the massacre of the
striking workers on November 16, 2004. I have a copy of the briefing which is also
in video that identify among supposed personalities of the Communist Party of
the Philippines and the New People’s Army who allegedly planned and implemented
the workers’ strikes and were allegedly even responsible for the violence that
attended the dispersal on November 16, the very man I mentioned earlier,
Councilor Abelardo Ladera, who is now lying in state at the plaza of Tarlac City
and would be interred tomorrow. The military action taken against him, in
this Representation’s view, is directly related to the implication by the
Northern Luzon Command of Councilor Ladera as a member of the New People’s Army.
Along with Councilor Ladera, the briefing implicated four of us Party-List
Representatives here in Congress in a report related to the strike at Hacienda
Luisita in which we Representatives Teodoro Casiño, Rafael Mariano and myself
are cited as having gone on November 15 at the strike picket and, I quote the
NOLCOM briefing, “urged the workers to continue their strike as one speaker
shouted they will pursue their strike even if there will be bloodshed”. And it
further says “ that after the incident, the three of us, including Congresswoman
Liza Maza of Gabriela, arrived on November 17 and attended the wake of the
casualties,” and that we “delivered the invective or incendiary statements
against government forces.” This is a damning accusation against four
Members of the House of Representatives, I am aware that the Chief of the
Philippine National
Police has written to Speaker Jose de Venecia complaining about the
“impropriety” that the four of us, Party-List Representatives, have supposedly
been responsible for by both agitating the workers to defy the order to return
to work of the Department of Labor, of instigating and making publicity out of
the massacre. It has been alleged by NOLCOM that all of these actions were in
consonance with the broad program of the underground revolutionary movement. The direct implication, Mr. Speaker, is that
the Party-List Representatives are taking command and implementing programs from
the CPP-NPA that foment violence. After, the murder of Councilor Ladera on the
third of March, this Representation has been receiving a lot of warnings by
well-meaning friends to take extra care security precautions because the
military are likely to replicate what they did to Councilor Ladera to the
Party-List Representatives mentioned in this briefing by NOLCOM, as possible
targets of similar armed attacks. By any cognition or perception, Mr. Speaker,
the killings, abductions, and disappearances cannot be but acts of terrorism.
The probability, if not the certainty, that these are perpetrated by agents of
the State, through its military or paramilitary operatives, makes the situation
a larger cause for public concern and for urgent actions to put an end to these
atrocities. I ask, Mr. Speaker, distinguished
colleagues, can’t the Thirteen Congress do something about the situation? Or, as
happened after the Twelfth Congress hearings, investigations and
recommendations, will the situation of killings continue endangering the lives
of many of peoples’ organizations and of Party-List Representatives trying their
best to give relief to our struggling peasants, workers, urban poor and other
marginalized sectors? This, I submit, Mr. Speaker, is a question
that must be directly addressed by Congress. The matter has been brought to the Committee on Ethics; I think it should be more than the Committee on
Ethics that must look into the allegations beyond “impropriety” on the part of
the four Representative with regard to the Hacienda Luisita strike. The very
serious charges of the NOLCOM need to be substantiated, otherwise, there has to
be some punitive actions on the military for putting in danger the very lives
and the very security of elected Representatives, namely: Reps. Teodoro Casiño,
Liza Maza, Rafael Mariano and this Representation. I submit, Mr. Speakers, that action is
awaited from us in this Chamber. Posted by Bulatlat
© 2004 Bulatlat
■
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Bayan Muna, Party-List
Privilege Speech
House of Representatives
I rise on a question of personal and collective privilege
in light of the recent spate of killings and abductions of members of my party,
Bayan Muna and those of my fellow Party-List Representatives in the Anakpawis
and Gabriela Women’s Party. There is Mr. Speaker, distinguished colleagues, a
seemingly grave danger even to the lives of at least four of the present
Party-List Representatives, namely: Representatives Teodoro Casiño, Rafael
Mariano, Liza Maza and this Representation.
On the 6th of this month, a company-sized formation of the 63rd Infantry
Battalion commanded by Col. Manuelito Uzi under the 803rd Infantry Brigade
commanded by Col. Bernardo de Luna in Catarman, Samar, staked out before the
headquarters of the Bayan Muna-Northern Samar headquarters, in an apparent
effort to terrorize or threaten the members of Bayan Muna in that province who
were protesting the deployment of military troops in the town of Catubig. And on
the following day, the seventh of this month, in the Province of Zambales, two
army soldiers from the 24th Infantry Battalion arrested Mer Dizon, the chairman
of the provincial chapter of Anakpawis, who is now in detention in the Iba
Provincial Jail.