COMELEC Hypocrisy Condemned: Urged To Review
Signatures
BY
THE COUNSELS FOR THE DEFENSE OF LIBERTIES (CODAL)
Posted by Bulatlat
CODAL condemns the
Commission on Election for colluding with Sigaw ng Bayan, a party to a
petition before it, to railroad the approval for a people’s initiative by
taking the hypocritical position of dismissing the complaint without
allowing the Oppositors to question the signatures. CODAL was informed
that COMELEC’s game plan is to dismiss Sigaw’s petition so that Sigaw can
immediately raise it with the Supreme Court who in turn is expected to
abandon its Santiago ruling. The COMELEC announced however, that it will
not allow questions on the authenticity of the alleged millions of
signatures. This will cover-up the fraud and deception used in the
signature drive for charter change and will be no different from the 2004
presidential canvassing and the two impeachment proceedings where
objections were merely “noted” and any evidence of fraud was not allowed
to be presented.
CODAL expresses its
disgust over the hypocritical stance of Chairman Benjamin Abalos who now
claims that Comelec cannot entertain the Sigaw petition due to the Supreme
Court injunction, after he allowed the verification of signatures of the
Sigaw petition in all Comelec offices nationwide. Commissioners
Resureccion Borra and Felix Brawner issued a memorandum ordering the
verification of the signatures, which not only shows the duplicity of
Chairman Abalos and the COMELEC but also makes them liable for Contempt of
the Supreme Court.
CODAL demands that
the COMELEC en banc allow objections to the signatures so that Oppositors
may be given the opportunity to prove the farce that is the people’s
initiative and so that those responsible may be criminally and
administratively charged. Again, just like the impeachment, the cover up
of the fraud committed in the signature campaign for charter change will
only inflame the current instability as another legal arena for redress is
closed.
Human Rights Case
is Strong: If only allowed in the Impeachment Proceeding
CODAL also takes
exception to the position by a lawyer’s group Competent and Responsible
Educators for Understanding the Law (CREUL) that the inclusion of human
rights violations in the impeachment complaint helped kill the impeachment
complaint. Such a position is not only legally and factually baseless but
also deceptive and will surely not lead to a competent and responsible
understanding of the law.
Firstly, members of
the majority have stated, even before they read the Complaint, that the
impeachment complaint will lose as the process is a numbers game which
means that their vote will depend on whether they are pro-Arroyo or not
and not on the charges or evidence presented in the complaint. In fact,
nowhere in the Justice Committee report dismissing the complaint was it
stated that the impeachment complaint is dismissed because the human
rights evidence is weak, a fact which may have escaped CREUL members.
Secondly, the human
rights complaint contains direct evidence from witnesses and the victims
themselves that the military committed these violations such as the
testimony of the daughter of spouses Albarillo who saw her parents taken
away and killed by the military and the daughter of Patricio Abalos who
saw her father abducted by a unit under Gen. Jovito Palparan headed by Lt.
Basquinas, both of whom admitted to her that her father (who remains
missing until now) is in their custody. The Elvis case is also a very
strong case against the military since the victim of abduction and torture
himself survived. He was released by the military from detention after a
court ordered them to do so in a habeas corpus case. There are hundreds
of documentary and testimonial evidence that could have been presented had
Congress allowed the presentation of evidence. Seasoned lawyers know that
testimonial evidence is very strong especially if coming from the victims
themselves who not only witnessed the crime but also, have no motive to
mislead the authorities on the identity of the perpetrators. The fact that
these witnesses are afraid of the military makes their testimony more
credible. .
If the lawyer’s group
contention were true, then logic dictates that Pres. Arroyo and her allies
should have allowed the presentation of evidence to expose weakness of the
human rights case and destroy forever the allegations of the complicity of
the Arroyo government on the political killings. However, fearful of the
damage the evidence will create, the House Majority obstinately refused to
allow the presentation of evidence.
Lastly, Creul did not
know of an existing jurisprudence that may convict Pres. Arroyo for the
human rights violations committed by her subordinates. Gen. Yamashita and
other war criminals were hanged for command responsibility in war crimes
even if there was no evidence showing their direct participation in such
based on the following elements:
- there is
widespread and systematic violation of human rights;
- the troops under
the command of the accused were involved or implicated in the same;
- the accused
commander, who has supervision and control over the troops, is aware of
the above the commander failed to stop the atrocities
In fact, the evidence
against Pres. Arroyo is stronger since she not only failed to stop the
violations but on the contrary, rewarded the perpetrators, even hailing
Gen. Palparan during her SONA.
The human rights case
against Pres. Arroyo is strong. Credible international institutions such
as the Inter Parliamentarian Union (IPU), the International Association of
Democratic Lawyers (IADL) the second largest lawyers group in the world,
Lawyers without Borders, Amnesty International, World Council of Churches,
and even the Philippine Commission on Human Rights found more than
sufficient evidence to hold the Arroyo government responsible for human
rights violations. Only the allies of the president in Congress and CREUL
chose to ignore the evidence, surely a case of careless, irresponsible and
incompetent reading of the law.
August 9, 2006
Posted by Bulatlat
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