Gov’t Fast-tracking Our Arrest - Satur

In Bayan Muna (People First) Rep. Satur Ocampo’s view, the Arroyo administration is bent on having him and the other so-called Batasan 5 representatives arrested to prevent them from participating in congressional discussions on the revival of the impeachment complaint and the proposed charter change.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

In Bayan Muna (People First) Rep. Satur Ocampo’s view, the Arroyo administration is bent on having him and the other so-called Batasan 5 representatives – Teddy Casiño and Joel Virador of Bayan Muna, Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis (Toiling Masses), and Liza Maza of the Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) – arrested to prevent them from participating in congressional discussions on the most controversial issues at present. This, he told Bulatlat in an interview, is why the Arroyo administration appears to be fast-tracking their arrest.

“If they get us arrested just before Congress resumes session, we wouldn’t be able to participate in discussions on, for example, the revival of the impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo or about moves to change the Constitution,” Ocampo said.

The Batasan 5 had to seek the protective custody of the House of Representatives after eluding attempts to arrest them without warrant at a press conference in Quezon City on Feb. 25, a day after Arroyo issued Proclamation No. 1017 declaring a state of national emergency.

Proclamation No. 1017 was issued supposedly to enable the government to prevent a coup attempt by elements of the “extreme Left” and the “extreme Right.” The said proclamation was issued hours after the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) claimed to have thwarted a mutiny to be led by Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Col. Ariel Querubin of the Philippine Marines.

The issuance of Proclamation No. 1017 led to the arrests of a number of progressive leaders and other opposition personalities – including Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran, who is still in detention. Authorities likewise tried to arrest the representatives now known as the Batasan 5.

Beltran and rebel officer 1Lt. Lawrence San Juan were charged with rebellion. The Department of Justice (DOJ) subsequently filed an amended information that included the Batasan 5 and 49 others in the charges.

Amended information

The amended information cited, among others, a chain of events beginning from the reestablishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in 1968 and included the Plaza Miranda bombing in 1971. “This applies even to Casiño, who was only an infant during the reestablishment of the CPP and the Plaza Miranda bombing,” Ocampo said.

Ocampo described witnesses’ accounts in the rebellion charge against them as “incredible.”

“One witness said he saw us in a meeting between the CPP and rebel soldiers in Padre Garcia, Batangas on Feb. 20, when House records show that we were attending budget hearings on that date,” he said. “Another witness said he saw me attend the 10^th Plenum of the CPP in 1992 – when I was detained in Fort Bonifacio at that time. Still another said he was a former New People’s Army (NPA) leader captured in 2002 and he supposedly knew that even then Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and GWP were channeling funds to the NPA – when in fact Anakpawis and GWP had not yet even been organized then.”

“So it is obvious that the supposed witnesses either did not know what they were saying, or they were lying,” Ocampo added.

The amended information was junked on May 4, and only Beltran and San Juan remain as defendants in the rebellion case filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

However, their troubles are not quite over. Judge Jenny Lind Delorino, who handles the rebellion case which was filed at the Makati City Regional Trial Court, told reporters the DOJ still has an option to sue the Batasan 5. “They can refile the case,” she said. “In fact that is in my resolution (and) they can refile it as new information.”

Should the DOJ decide to file the amended information to the charges against Beltran and San Juan as a new case, the Batasan 5 would again be under threat of arrest.

But if Ocampo and the other Batasan 5 representatives should be fortunate enough not to be arrested, they would be participating in congressional deliberations on the revival of the impeachment complaint and proposed changes to the Constitution.

Impeachment revival

“When the impeachment complaint is refiled, our group would be in charge of the issue of human rights violations, which would fall under culpable violation of the Constitution,” Ocampo said. “These would now include the calibrated preemptive response (CPR) policy, Proclamation No. 1017, Executive Order No. 464, General Order No. 5, and other similar measures.”

The CPR policy and the arrests done under Proclamation No. 1017 have recently been declared by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.

It will be recalled that impeachment charges were filed last year against Arroyo at the House of Representatives.

The original impeachment complaint, filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano, charged Arroyo with betrayal of public trust. It cited as basis her admission that she talked with election officials during the counting of votes in the 2004 presidential election.

An amended version of the Lozano complaint, meanwhile, accused her of bribery, graft and corruption, and culpable violation of the Constitution aside from betrayal of public trust. Among the charges leveled against her by the amended impeachment complaint was complicity in human rights abuses committed by state forces. This was cited as a culpable violation of the Constitution.

HR 1230

Meanwhile, even as debates on charter change through the so-called people’s initiative rage, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Constantino Jaraula has recently filed House Resolution No. 1230 calling for Congress to be convened into a constituent assembly to speed up the introduction of amendments and revisions to the Constitution. Attached to HR 1230 is a draft constitution replacing the presidential form of government with parliamentary, and further opening up the economy to foreign investments.

“Our group has registered the strongest position against charter change,” Ocampo said, “and we will be carrying that position if we should be able to participate in forthcoming charter change discussions in the House.” Bulatlat 

BACK TO TOP ■  PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION  ■   COMMENT

© 2006 Bulatlat ■  Alipato Publications

Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.