“We don't want them dead.”
This is what the wives of four political activists
accused of murder said when asked in a press conference earlier this
afternoon whether they would advise their husbands to surface at this
time.
“All extrajudicial killings started
with fabricated charges – they may have been filed in court, they may
not have been filed in court,” said Carolina “Bobbie” Malay, wife of
Bayan Muna (People First) Rep. Satur Ocampo who is one of the four
accused. “Character assassination first, and then surveillance that grew
tighter and tighter. We are really worried because their lives are in
danger.”
In a statement distributed during
the press conference, Malay and Fides Lim-Ladlad, Linda Lacaba-Echanis,
and Lualhati Roque-Baylosis – wives of Bayan Muna leader Vicente Ladlad
and Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) leaders Randall Echanis and Rafael
Baylosis, respectively – condemned the issuance of arrest warrants for
their husbands what they described as “false murder charges.”
The warrants are for the alleged
killings of members of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the
New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in Inopacan, Leyte in 1984 as part of a
purported “purge” within the ranks of the communist movement. Ocampo,
Ladlad, Echanis, and Baylosis are accused of having signed in the
presence of “witnesses” an order to massacre people in 1984 in Inopacan
under a so-called “Oplan VD.”
Ocampo is publicly known to have
been in maximum security detention in Bicutan, Taguig at the time the
massacre is supposed to have taken place.
Lim and Lacaba showed pictures of
and news clippings about their husbands in jail to prove that Ladlad and
Echanis could not have personally supervised the alleged Inopacan
massacre.
“The charges against him are a total
sham,” Lim said of Ladlad. “He was a political prisoner at Camp Nakar,
Lucena City…when these supposed murder cases in Leyte took place. He was
in fact locked up in jail from February 1983 until March 1986 following
the EDSA uprising when all political prisoners were ordered freed by
President (Corazon) Aquino.”
“My husband (was) a political
detainee during the Marcos dictatorship,” Lacaba meanwhile said of
Echanis. “From 1983 to 1984, my husband was detained under solitary
confinement and was held incommunicado in Camp Aguinaldo. Even his close
relatives and lawyers were not allowed to visit him. From 1984 to 1986,
he was transferred at Camp Adduru, Regional Command 2 Stockade until his
release in March 1986.”
Ocampo, Ladlad, Echanis, and
Baylosis have not surfaced since the arrest warrants were issued. They
are busy consulting with their legal counsels and preparing for their
legal moves, their wives said.
Their wives pointed out, however, that they would not
advise their husbands to surface at this time.
Bulatlat
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