This story was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 7, March 19-25, 2006

 

Analysis

Gov’t Does the Unjust by Invoking Justice

From Crispin Beltran to Dinky Soliman, the government is making a mockery of the justice system. It wants to silence legitimate dissent by arresting selected personalities on trumped-up charges, even to the point where these have become patently outrageous and ridiculous.

BY BENJIE OLIVEROS
Bulatlat

Even if the writ of habeas corpus and the Bill of Rights are not suspended and courts are in session, the police are conducting warrantless arrests. They are also filing charges using manufactured evidences, producing witnesses with incredible claims. The Department of Justice is also planning to produce a “rogue” gallery where those who are not yet found guilty of charges against them will be listed as wanted by the government.

Police undecided what case to file vs Beltran

Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran was invited by elements of the Crime Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in the morning of February 25, the day after the issuance of Proclamation No. 1017. When Beltran and his escorts arrived at Camp Crame, he was arrested by virtue of a 1985 warrant for a case filed during the Marcos dictatorship.

If the police really believed they were conducting a legal arrest, why in the first place did they arrest him first and showed the warrant later? As it turned out, however, the 1985 case was already dismissed. When Beltran’s lawyers led by Atty. Romeo Capulong pointed this out to the police, the latter immediately filed an inciting to sedition case.

Capulong raised the question of Beltran’s parliamentary immunity in cases with a penalty of not more than six years. The penalty for sedition, if found guilty, is six years and below. A subsequent decision by Judge Evangeline Castillo-Marigomen of the Quezon City Court March 13 confirmed Capulong’s assertions.

Instead of releasing Beltran, however, the Philippine National Police (PNP) filed a rebellion case. It conducted an ambush inquest at Camp Crame. When Beltran and Capulong tried to walk out of the inquest because of the absurdity of the proceedings, the police surrounded them and practically held them up.

Is it so difficult for the PNP to decide what case to file?  The police clearly file one case after another against Beltran so that he can continue to languish in jail.

Absurd evidences, witnesses vs Beltran et al

Another absurdity in the cases filed against Beltran is the supposed basis and witnesses. 

The sedition case was based on a speech supposedly delivered by Beltran during a rally at the EDSA Shrine last February 24. It may be recalled that the police dispersed the protesters then at around 12 noon, and that Beltran came in late and never had the chance to give a speech.

The rebellion case was based on the accounts of two supposed eyewitnesses. The first claimed he saw  Beltran, with Representatives Satur Ocampo, Teodoro Casino, and Joel Virador of Bayan Muna (People First), Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis, and Liza Maza of Gabriela Women’s Party, attending a plenum of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in 2002. The six were elected in 2001 and has been conducting their duties as legislators ever since.

The other witness claimed he was defecating when he supposedly saw the six representatives in the company of Magdalo officer Lt. Lawrence San Juan. The most recent of these incredible witnesses was a certain Jaime Fuentes who was presented covering his face with a polo shirt, reminiscent of the Makapili, informers of the Japanese occupation army in the Philippines who covered their head with bayong (straw bag). In his affidavit, Fuentes claimed that six party-list representatives, six other personalities connected with the abovementioned party lists and six mass leaders are affiliated with the CPP. The mass leaders belonged to the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance), Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May 1st Movement), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the Philippines) and Gabriela.   

Ocampo, Casino, Virador, Mariano, and Maza had to secure the protective custody of the House of Representatives to avoid warrantless arrest.  The police are just outside the gates of the House of Representatives, ready to arrest them once they step out. On what basis? A rebellion charge, which is still in the process of preliminary investigation.  No arrest warrants therefore have been issued against them.

Repression in March

Last March 8, the police physically removed Akbayan (Shoulder to shoulder) Representative Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel during a rally at Welcome Rotonda.  When reminded that they were violating her parliamentary immunity, the police responded that they were merely protecting her. Protecting her from what?

Ten days after (March 18), the police arrested former Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman while walking at the Baywalk in Manila with 30 others. The police argued that they arrested Soliman because her group was wearing t-shirts with the words “Patalsikin na. Now Na!” (Oust Now) printed on it. Even if they did not have any streamers and placards, Soliman was charged with illegal assembly. Since when has walking at Baywalk and wearing a t-shirt with a political slogan been prohibited?  

The Arroyo administration has offered reward money for information leading to the arrest of former Sen. Gringo Honasan, retired Capt. Felix Turingan, among others.  The PNP is planning to include personalities from the legal and underground left in a rogue gallery, a poster of “wanted” persons, reminiscent of the Wild, Wild, West. Shouldn’t there be due process especially when those concerned are not yet convicted of any crime?

Monkeying around

The PNP is acting with impunity making a mockery of the justice system. At the same time, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is on a killing spree trying to eliminate progressives in the provinces outside of the National Capital Region.  And the prosecutors of the DOJ are going along with it even if they surely know that the processes are fundamentally wrong. 

Worse, Justice Sec. Raul Gonzales, is making a parody of the justice system by legitimizing the authoritarian acts of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. In doing so, the DOJ is turning itself into a kangaroo court. Since a kangaroo is foreign to the Philippines, unggoy-unggoyan (monkeying around) may be a more appropriate term.

The latest survey of Pulse Asia shows that 65 percent of the population wants Arroyo removed from Malacańang. If majority of the population moves for her removal, does this mean that the DOJ will charge them with rebellion? Who is committing a criminal act – the 65 percent or probably even just a few hundreds of thousands of people acting collectively for the removal of Macapagal-Arroyo, or Macapagal-Arroyo and her cohorts who are monkeying around with the justice system in a desperate effort to cling to power?  

Will all the judges and justices from the lower courts up to the Supreme Court allow the Arroyo administration to use and abuse them? If not, then there is still some semblance of justice in this land.  But in the final analysis, it is the majority of the Filipino people, perhaps this 65 percent, who are in the best position to exact and institute justice in the country. Bulatlat

 

© 2006 Bulatlat ■  Alipato Publications

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