HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

As judge finds probable cause on rebellion charge
Beltran Decries Political Harassment Anew

Detained party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran accused the Arroyo administration of using the courts to harass and intimidate progressive lawmakers and leaders of militant groups. He knows this too well, as the new judge assigned to the case against him recently declared probable cause that he committed rebellion, notwithstanding the volumes of evidence he presented to disprove the accusation.

BY LISA ITO
Bulatlat

The new judge assigned to the rebellion case against AnakPawis (toiling masses) Party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran recently ordered that the case would proceed, notwithstanding Beltran’s presentation of counter-evidence.

In a three-sentence order dated May 31, 2006, Judge Encarnacion Jaja Moya of the Makati Regional Trial Court (MRTC) Branch 146 wrote that "after examining the record of this case, the Court finds probable cause to believe that the accused 1Lt. Lawrence San Juan, P.A., and Crispin Beltran y Bertiz committed the crime charged (i.e., rebellion)."

Moya set Beltran's arraignment on June 8, at 2:00 pm at the MRTC Branch 146.

The case was re-raffled off to Moya last May 15 after the DOJ succeeded in getting Judge Jenny Lind Aldecoa-Delorino of the MRTC Branch 137 to voluntarily inhibit herself from rebellion cases charged against the six party-list representatives and six other individuals.

Delorino earned the DOJ’s ire after she dismissed the DOJ’s motion to admit amended information into Beltran's rebellion charge, which would include the five other party-list representatives – Rep. Satur Ocampo, Rep. Teddy Casiño, Rep. Joel Virador, Rep. Liza Maza and Rep. Rafael Mariano, collectively called by the media as Batasan 5 – in the original charge sheet.

Political harassment                                                                                      

While DOJ Secretary Raul Gonzales immediately lauded Moya’s decision as “reaffirming the DOJ’s findings,” the order was immediately contested by Beltran’s camp.

"Parang gusto kong maiyak (I feel like crying)," was Beltran's first reaction upon hearing the news the following day. Delorino previously approved the 73-year old solon’s transfer under police custody to the Philippine Heart Center last April 26, for treatment of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

Beltran said that he did not expect this kind of decision, as he was able to submit volumes of “incontrovertible documentary counter-evidence disputing the DOJ's charges.”

The one-paragraph commitment order did not even discuss how the court came to conclude that there was probable cause for rebellion in Beltran's case, Beltran's legal counsel, United Nations ad litem judge Atty. Romeo Capulong said.

The order was issued despite the inconsistencies in the evidence the prosecution submitted as part of the charge. Capulong cited as an example the affidavit of DOJ witness Ruel Escala, a manicurist from Manila, who claimed that he saw the six party-list representatives meet with alleged Magdalo soldiers at around 3 p.m on Feb. 20 at a cockfighting farm in Barangay (village) Bukal, Padre Garcia, Batangas, while answering the call of nature in the vicinity.

Escala's affidavit was countered by documentary evidence showing that all six solons, including Beltran, were in Congress (around six hours away from Brgy. Bukal) that day. These included footage from the House security camera, attendance sheets that proved their presence at committee hearings and journals of plenary sessions.

Rafael Baylosis, Anakpawis vice-chairperson and a co-accused of assassinated peace talks consultant Sotero Llamas to the DOJ’s amended rebellion case before the MRTC Branch 57, slammed Moya's decision, saying it “only serves to perpetuate the Arroyo administration’s political harassment.”

Capulong said that they will be filing a Motion for Reconsideration on June 5, asking Judge Moya to reconsider her earlier order.

People’s verdict

This is the second time in his life that Beltran was detained and charged for rebellion.

Beltran was incarcerated and tortured as a political prisoner, along with the late former Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU, May First Movement) Chairperson Felixberto Olalia, in Camp Crame from August 1982 to 1984 during the Marcos dictatorship. The rebellion charges filed against him under the Marcos administration were eventually “pardoned” by the Aquino administration after Marcos was ousted through a people’s uprising in 1986.

Beltran and Baylosis, both charged with rebellion under the Marcos and the Arroyo administrations, decried how the current government was “using legal mechanisms in furtherance of political harassment against critics of the President’s policies and wrongdoings.”

"While the Arroyo administration is doing nothing to immediately stop the extra-judicial killings of activists, it is waging intense political repression against progressive parliamentarians through legalistic means. Legalistic, but not in accordance with the spirit of the law and of justice," Beltran said.

"Despite the glaring lack of probable cause, this decision by the MRTC goes to show that the DOJ, PNP, and top security officials presided by GMA are out to arrest, detain, and even kill those charged with rebellion and members of the opposition," Baylosis said.

Beltran however stressed that he would "face and expose these false and fabricated charges in court and welcome initiatives to oppose repression through political means and through mass protests in the street.”

“Kasalukyang ginagamit ng administrasyong Arroyo ang mga ahensya ng pamahalaan at ang mga korte upang bigyang-katwiran ang kanilang pandarahas sa mga progresibong mambabatas at mga lider ng mga militanteng grupo. Pero sa huli, taong bayan pa rin ang huhusga.” (The Arroyo administration is now using government agencies and the courts to justify their repression of progressive solons and militant leaders. But in the end, it will still be the people who will decide.) Beltran said. Bulatlat

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