This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 8, March 25-31, 2007
ANALYSIS
Like
Thieves in the Night
Not only
thieves prowl the night. In the dead of night, the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration tried to transfer Rep. Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna (People First)
party to Leyte. It was also late evening when the government transferred Lance
Cpl. Daniel Smith to the custody of the U.S. embassy. In Ocampo’s case they did
so to suppress dissent. In Smith’s case it did so out of servility and to court
the favour of the U.S. government. But in both cases the government tried to
evade public scrutiny.
BY BENJIE
OLIVEROS It used to be
that only thieves prowl the night. They do their workings when their intended
victims are asleep, the police are few, and the probability of sightings and
people lending a hand to the victims are low. Thieves thrive on furtiveness and
treachery to steal money and property. That was until
Martial Law… Then not only
thieves prowled the night. The dreaded MISG (Metrocom Intelligence Security
Group) and the CSG (Constabulary Security Group) operated during the night.
Late evening and early dawn raids were commonplace to catch their targets asleep
and off-guard. A lot of critics of the Marcos dictatorship, especially from the
Left, were caught this way. The late evening raids also made political
detainees then vulnerable to torture as their capture was done at night when the
people are asleep and the probability of someone witnessing the abduction is
low. The Marcos dictatorship thrived on fear and darkness to deprive people of
their rights. Supposedly,
there is no Martial Law. But the Macapagal-Arroyo administration is thriving in
furtiveness, treachery, fear, and darkness. Early morning
of March 19, 3 a.m. to be exact, Rep. Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna (People First)
party was abruptly roused from his sleep to be taken to Hilongos, Leyte. He was
bodily carried to a van by 5:00 a.m, taken to the airport, and flown by private
plane to Leyte only to be taken back because of a court order remanding him to
the custody of Local Government Undersec. Marius Corpus until after the Supreme
Court hears his petitions for Temporary Restraining Order and certiorari. They
tried to pre-empt the Supreme Court. Only the quick move of Ocampo’s lawyers
who sent Neri Colmenares, general counsel and third nominee of Bayan Muna, to
Leyte early morning of March 19 to file a petition to allow Ocampo to be
detained in Manila until the Supreme Court hearing on March 23 frustrated the
plan of the government. Why did they have to do this in the dead of the night
when Ocampo is already in their custody? Is it to pre-empt any court decision
and protest action questioning the planned move? This was not the first time
that the Macapagal-Arroyo administration acted in the dead of the night. On December
29, 2006 at 11 p.m., Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith who was convicted of raping Nicole
was transferred from the Makati City Jail to the U.S. embassy in the dead of the
night. That was after Judge Benjamin Pozon of the Makati Regional Court rejected
the petition of Smith’s counsels, the U.S. embassy, and the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration for his transfer to the embassy. Smith was ordered to be
detained in the city jail until after the government and U.S. embassy agree
which Philippine jail facility he should be imprisoned. These unjust
acts of the Arroyo government are not merely concerns of Ocampo and Nicole.
These concern all of us. If they can run roughshod on the rights of Rep. Satur
Ocampo, a public figure and member of Congress, they can do more to people who
are not as prominent. If the government has the temerity to defy a court order
and spring a convicted rapist in a case which caught the public’s interest, it
can easily deny justice to an ordinary Juan or Juana de la Cruz. In Ocampo’s
case, the Macapagal-Arroyo administration showed how easy it is for them to deny
us of our rights and liberty. In Nicole’s case the government demonstrated that
it has no qualms about denying us of our dignity and justice. When the
government arrested Ocampo and tried to deprive him of his rights, it did not do
so in defense of democracy nor merely to implement the law, it did it to
suppress dissent and to impose its will. When the government spirited away Smith
and turned him over to the U.S. embassy, it did not do so in compliance to a
lawful international agreement, it did it out of servility and to court the
continued political and financial support of the U.S. government to its rule. A thief will
continue stealing for as long as it has not been caught and put behind bars.
The Marcos dictatorship could have continued with its iron-fist rule if it was
not ousted. The Macapagal-Arroyo administration would continue denying us of our
rights, liberty, dignity, and justice if we allow it to do so. The spate of
political killings and forced disappearances which has victimized 836 and 194
persons, respectively, has not stopped not only because the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration and the Armed Forces of the Philippines continue to be in a state
of denial. It continues because we have not yet shown what the Filipino people
will and can do if it does not stop. The Filipino
people has ousted two presidents, in 1986 and 1998, and was able to stop two
attempts at amending the 1987 Constitution for self-serving ends, the first in
1997 and again in 2006. It can put a stop to the unjust and anti-people acts of
the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. Bulatlat © 2007 Bulatlat
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