This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 6, March 11-17, 2007
Rep. Satur Ocampo of Bayan
Muna
BY BULATLAT
With five teams of the National Bureau of
Investigation (NBI) scattered all over the metropolis to track him down and 15
agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) swooping down at
his home in Quezon City, Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo is the subject of probably
the most elaborate manhunt today.
Despite public persecution from the government,
however, Ocampo’s party, Bayan Muna, emerged as the top choice as party-list in
the latest Social Weather Station (SWS) survey. Its allies, Anakpawis (toiling
masses) and Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) placed second and third in the list,
respectively.
Ocampo, a journalist before and during the early
years of Martial Law, a two-time political detainee, the former spokesperson of
the National Democratic Front of the Philippines after the fall of the
dictatorship, and a two-termer representative of Bayan Muna in the Lower House,
is facing arrest for charges of multiple murder.
Branch 18 of the Regional Trial Court of
Hilongos, province of Leyte issued a warrant for his arrest on Monday, March 5,
for the alleged murders in a purported purge of at least 62 members of the
Maoist New People’s Army (NPA) in Inopacan, Leyte in 1984.
However, Ocampo said he could not have been in
Leyte at that time to give orders for the alleged purge and killings, as claimed
by witnesses, because he was under military custody then.
In a media briefing on Tuesday, March 6, Ocampo
said this move to put him behind bars is one of the Macapagal-Arroyo
government’s means to neutralize Bayan Muna and its “politics for change.”
Bulatlat is reposting
this story on Ocampo to give a deeper view of why government agents want to
get him and why the marginalized sectors of society want him back as their
representative at the Lower House.
This story was originally posted on March 14, 2004. Bulatlat © 2007 Bulatlat
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Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
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