‘The Citizens' Congress Has the Highest Moral Authority’
The citizens’ congress
that will try President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is an alternative forum
that has become necessary because of the impotence of
traditional institutions and processes to address the serious charges
being levied against the president.
BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
AGAINST REPRESSION: Karapatan secretary-general Marie Hilao-Enriquez
unfurls a list of activists slain under the Arroyo regime (left photo) as
jueteng whistleblower Sandra Cam and Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes,
Jr. join other protesters at a mass for civil liberties.
PHOTOS BY AUBREY MAKILAN
A citizens’ congress
will try beleaguered President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the killings of
486 political dissenters and the enforced disappearances of 153 others
since she assumed the presidency in January 2001.
The cases include the
recent killing of five persons in less than 24 hours in Central Luzon (CL)
region. At around 8 p.m. of Oct. 25, Central Azucarrera de Tarlac Labor
Union (CATLU) president Ric Ramos was shot dead inside a hut beside his
house in Barangay (village) Mapalacsiao, San Miguel, Tarlac
City. At around 8 a.m. the next
day, party-list group Bayan Muna (people first) member Francisco Rivera
was shot nine times in front of his house in Angeles City, Pampanga
killing him instantly. His two friends, Dr. Angel David and Von John
Maniti who dropped by to chat with David were also killed. Later in the
afternoon, Federico de Leon, transport group leader and provincial chair
of the party-list group Anakpawis, was shot twice while on board his
tricycle in Malolos
City, Bulacan. He died on the spot.
The amended
impeachment complaint filed against Macapagal-Arroyo by opposition
congressmen on July 25 said the spate of killings under the present
administration violates the Constitution and constitutes betrayal of
public thrust.
Citizens’ congress
Since the impeachment
case against the president was junked by pro-administration congressmen on
Sept. 6, pro-impeachment legislators turned over the complaint to the
Bukluran para sa Katotohanan (Coalition for Truth), an alliance of 50
organizations seeking the ouster of Macapagal-Arroyo.
Bukluran created the
Citizens’ Congress for Truth and Accountability (CCTA) which aims to help
ferret out the truth on the scandals hounding the president.
In a press conference
Oct 25, CCTA convenor Atty. Luis Sison said the congress also aims to
recommend proper accountability measures on Macapagal-Arroyo who has been
accused of electoral fraud, violations of human rights and graft and
corruption.
The Amended
Impeachment Complaint will serve as basis for the CCTA’s cases against the
president.
Betrayal of public
thrust
The Amended
Impeachment Complaint states that as Commander in Chief of the armed
forces and Chief Executive with the power of control and supervision over
her subordinates, Macapagal-Arroyo violated her duty and oath under the
Constitution and its provisions requiring protection of human rights when
she acquiesced in and provided impunity to the killings of political
dissenters, or infringe their freedoms of expression and assembly.
The complaint said
her act of promoting military officers with record of human rights abuses
such as Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan and her failure to investigate their
reported abuses further violates provisions on accountability of public
officials, as well as her oath under Section 5, Article VII to “preserve
and defend the Constitution, execute its laws and do justice to every
man.”
Palaparan has been
charged before the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Commission on Human
Rights (CHR) for human rights abuses committed while he was commanding
officer of the 204th Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army (IB
PA) in the province of Oriental
Mindoro and the 8th
Infantry Division (ID PA) in the Eastern Visayas region.
And in less than two
months as head of the 7th (ID PA) based in CL, the general has
been accused of spearheading a terror campaign against political activists
in the region that has so far killed 19 individuals.
Despite the charges,
Palparan was promoted by the president from colonel to brigadier general
just before he was sent to Iraq to head the Philippine mission in 2004. He
has also been nominated for promotion to major general which is now
pending at the Commission on Appointments (CA) and opposed by progressive
Party-list groups in Congress and human rights groups.
The complaint charged
that “the promotion the president granted to Palparan is a clear act of
ratification and approval of his actions, including those which constitute
human rights abuses.”
Constitutional
The administration
has criticized the citizens’ congress with Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye
calling it no less than a “kangaroo court.”
The CCTA convenors
maintained that the president shall be assured of her rights as an accused
and would be given the opportunity to air her side.
In fact, the
prosecution team headed by United Nations ad litem Judge Romeo
Capulong handed the Notice of Proceedings to Malacañang on Oct. 26.
However, Bunye’s
consultant, Emilio Magdangal, tore the documents in front of the media and
said it had no legal basis and should therefore be trashed.
But another copy of
the summon was forwarded and formally received by the Palace’ Record
Section, with an official barcode of R00321718.
Capulong, on the
other hand, said the CCTA has the mandate, authority and legitimacy to
undertake this difficult task. He stated as constitutional basis Article
XIII, Section 15 which recognizes “the role of the independent people’s
organizations to pursue and protect within the democratic framework their
legitimate and collective interest and aspirations through peaceful and
lawful means.”
“It is an alternative
forum which has become necessary because of the impotence and failure of
the traditional institutions and processes of constitutional democracy to
address and redress the serious charges …, which, if shown to be true,
would make Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo unfit, disqualified and illegitimate,”
Capulong said in a statement.
“But over and above
this constitutional basis,” Capulong said, “the Citizens' Congress has the
highest moral authority that emanate from the powerful voices and
accumulated grievances of the great majority of the Filipino people crying
for truth and justice not only on the Garci tapes, the political killings
and other human rights violations and plunder and corruption that are the
subject-matter of the Amended Impeachment Complaint but more seriously the
unabated misgovernance and continued exploitation and oppression of the
overwhelming majority of poor Filipinos under the prevailing system.”
Composition
The CCTA is made up
of about 400 delegates coming from various sectors of society. It is
headed by a set of presiding officers – or Presidium – led by former Vice
President Teofisto Guingona.
Members of the
Presidium are: Nasser Marahomsalic, formerly with the Commission on Human
Rights (CHR) and the Regional Consultative Commission for Muslim Mindanao
(RCCMM); Atty. Victoria Avena, formerly with the Presidential Commission
on Good Government (PCGG); Bishop Alberto Ramiento, co-chair of the
Ecumenical Bishops Forum; Sharon Rose Joy Duremdes, secretary general of
the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (UCCP); Bishop Dan
Balais of the Jesus is Lord (JIL) Movement; and Menchie Caragdag of Peace
for Life.
The prosecution team
is headed by Capulong who has served in the United Nation’s International
Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia and is the current chair of the
Committee of Filipino Migrant Workers’ Rights. Other prosecutors are Neri
Colmenares of the Counsels for the Defense of Liberties (CODAL); and
Glenda Litong of the Alternative Law Group (ALG).
Congress convenors
include Sr. Mary John Manazan, OSB; Bro. Armin Luistro, FSB; Maria Serena
Diokno, history professor at UP; Atty. Luis Sison of JIL; and Bien Lumbera,
Ramon Magsaysay awardee and University of the Philippines professor.
Hearings will be held
from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Nov. 8 and 9 at the University of the Philippines
(UP) and on Nov. 15 and 16 at the University of
Makati
(UM).
Macapagal-Arroyo had
earlier been indicted by the
International People’s Tribunal
that convened in Quezon City last Aug. 19. She was found guilty of
violations of human rights by the jurors composed of delegates from
foreign countries.
She is the second president indicted
before a people’s tribunal. The late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos was
tried by the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) Session on the Philippines
in October 1980 in Antwerp,
Belgium. Bulatlat
BACK TO
TOP ■
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION ■
COMMENT
© 2005 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided
its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
