This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 13, May 7-13, 2006
Gov’t Fast-tracking Our
Arrest - Satur In
Bayan Muna (People First) Rep. Satur Ocampo’s view, the Arroyo administration is
bent on having him and the other so-called Batasan 5 representatives arrested to
prevent them from participating in congressional discussions on the revival of
the impeachment complaint and the proposed charter change. BY
ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO In Bayan Muna (People
First) Rep. Satur Ocampo’s view, the Arroyo administration is bent on having him
and the other so-called Batasan 5 representatives – Teddy Casiño and Joel
Virador of Bayan Muna, Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis (Toiling Masses), and Liza
Maza of the Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) – arrested to prevent them from
participating in congressional discussions on the most controversial issues at
present. This, he told Bulatlat in an interview, is why the Arroyo
administration appears to be fast-tracking their arrest. “If they get us arrested
just before Congress resumes session, we wouldn’t be able to participate in
discussions on, for example, the revival of the impeachment complaint against
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo or about moves to change the Constitution,”
Ocampo said. The Batasan 5 had to seek
the protective custody of the House of Representatives after eluding attempts to
arrest them without warrant at a press conference in Quezon City on Feb. 25, a
day after Arroyo issued Proclamation No. 1017 declaring a state of national
emergency. Proclamation No. 1017 was
issued supposedly to enable the government to prevent a coup attempt by elements
of the “extreme Left” and the “extreme Right.” The said proclamation was issued
hours after the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) claimed to have thwarted a
mutiny to be led by Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Col. Ariel Querubin of the
Philippine Marines. The issuance of
Proclamation No. 1017 led to the arrests of a number of progressive leaders and
other opposition personalities – including Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran, who
is still in detention. Authorities likewise tried to arrest the representatives
now known as the Batasan 5. Beltran and rebel officer
1Lt. Lawrence San Juan were charged with rebellion. The Department of Justice
(DOJ) subsequently filed an amended information that included the Batasan 5 and
49 others in the charges. Amended information The amended information
cited, among others, a chain of events beginning from the reestablishment of the
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in 1968 and included the Plaza Miranda
bombing in 1971. “This applies even to Casiño, who was only an infant during the
reestablishment of the CPP and the Plaza Miranda bombing,” Ocampo said. Ocampo described witnesses’
accounts in the rebellion charge against them as “incredible.” “One witness said he saw us
in a meeting between the CPP and rebel soldiers in Padre Garcia, Batangas on
Feb. 20, when House records show that we were attending budget hearings on that
date,” he said. “Another witness said he saw me attend the 10th
Plenum of the CPP in 1992 – when I was detained in Fort Bonifacio at that time.
Still another said he was a former New People’s Army (NPA) leader captured in
2002 and he supposedly knew that even then Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and GWP were
channeling funds to the NPA – when in fact Anakpawis and GWP had not yet even
been organized then.” “So it is obvious that the
supposed witnesses either did not know what they were saying, or they were
lying,” Ocampo added. The amended information was
junked on May 4, and only Beltran and San Juan remain as defendants in the
rebellion case filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ). However, their troubles are
not quite over. Judge Jenny Lind Delorino, who handles the rebellion case which
was filed at the Makati City Regional Trial Court, told reporters the DOJ still
has an option to sue the Batasan 5. “They can refile the case,” she said. “In
fact that is in my resolution (and) they can refile it as new information.” Should the DOJ decide to
file the amended information to the charges against Beltran and San Juan as a
new case, the Batasan 5 would again be under threat of arrest. But if Ocampo and the other
Batasan 5 representatives should be fortunate enough not to be arrested, they
would be participating in congressional deliberations on the revival of the
impeachment complaint and proposed changes to the Constitution. Impeachment revival “When the impeachment
complaint is refiled, our group would be in charge of the issue of human rights
violations, which would fall under culpable violation of the Constitution,”
Ocampo said. “These would now include the calibrated preemptive response (CPR)
policy, Proclamation No. 1017, Executive Order No. 464, General Order No. 5, and
other similar measures.” The CPR policy and the
arrests done under Proclamation No. 1017 have recently been declared by the
Supreme Court as unconstitutional. It will be recalled that
impeachment charges were filed last year against Arroyo at the House of
Representatives. The original impeachment
complaint, filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano, charged Arroyo with betrayal of public
trust. It cited as basis her admission that she talked with election officials
during the counting of votes in the 2004 presidential election. An amended version of the
Lozano complaint, meanwhile, accused her of bribery, graft and corruption, and
culpable violation of the Constitution aside from betrayal of public trust.
Among the charges leveled against her by the amended impeachment complaint was
complicity in human rights abuses committed by state forces. This was cited as a
culpable violation of the Constitution. HR 1230 Meanwhile, even as debates
on charter change through the so-called people’s initiative rage, Cagayan de Oro
City Rep. Constantino Jaraula has recently filed House Resolution No. 1230
calling for Congress to be convened into a constituent assembly to speed up the
introduction of amendments and revisions to the Constitution. Attached to HR
1230 is a draft constitution replacing the presidential form of government with
parliamentary, and further opening up the economy to foreign investments. “Our group has registered
the strongest position against charter change,” Ocampo said, “and we will be
carrying that position if we should be able to participate in forthcoming
charter change discussions in the House.” Bulatlat © 2006 Bulatlat
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