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Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Issue No. 34 October 7 - 13, 2001 Quezon City, Philippines |
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Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Issue No. 34 October 7 - 13, 2001 Quezon City, Philippines |
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Migrant
Section: Party-list group Bayan Muna has called on the House of Representatives to investigate the arrest of 30 Filipinos working in Belgium last September 20. The Belgian police suspected these Filipinos of having links with "terrorist organizations." BY BULATLAT.COM
A congressional inquiry is in the works following the arrest of some 30 Filipinos including migrant workers and professionals by Belgian police in Brussels Sept. 20. The inquiry was pushed by House Party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran over the weekend upon learning that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) headed by Vice President Teofisto Guingona and Philippine embassy officials in Brussels failed to protect the rights of the Filipino compatriots whose houses, he said, were unjustly raided and occupants arrested and detained together with their children. Guingona was also asked to file a diplomatic protest with the Belgian government. He, along with the embassy officials, however refused saying said that the raids conducted were “legitimate, within the bounds of the law, normal and routine.” The raids were reportedly conducted by the Belgian police on suspicion that the Filipinos had links to “terrorist organizations.” Brussels, where the Filipinos live and work, is also the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the same defense group that has led the bombing of Iraq, Kosovo, Bosnia and now, imminently, Afghanistan. Accounts In a news conference in Quezon City, Migrante International presented to reporters Honorato Calapaca, one of the Filipinos arrested, detained and interrogated, and Dr. Bert de Belder, a Belgian doctor assisting the Filipinos who were raided. Through a phone hook-up from Brussels, Calapaca and De Belder narrated to reporters how the Belgian police conduct the raids of Sept. 20. Beltran, who spoke in the news conference, said there was a clear and serious violation of the civil rights of the Filipinos rounded up in Brussels. He pushed for a congressional inquiry on the matter. He advised Calapaca and the other Filipinos who were arrested unceremoniously to file a complaint with the Philippine embassy on the basis of which Bayan Muna, Beltran’s political party, can move for a congressional inquiry. The labor leader said that the case is no longer a personal or national matter but has assumed an international dimension. Also present in Brussels during the phone interview from Manila were Grace Punongbayan, director of MIGRANTE Europe, members of Calapaca's family and several friends. Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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