Rights groups slam trumped-up charges vs activists, peace consultants
Human rights groups picketed the Manila Regional Trial Court to call for the junking of murder charges against former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo and some peace consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), including Randall Echanis, Rafael Baylosis, Vicente Ladlad, and the recently arrested Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria. The clarificatory […]
Human rights groups picketed the Manila Regional Trial Court to call for the junking of murder charges against former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo and some peace consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), including Randall Echanis, Rafael Baylosis, Vicente Ladlad, and the recently arrested Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria.
The clarificatory hearing was conducted after the Supreme Court on February dismissed the consolidated petitions filed by Ocampo and others contesting the charges against them.
Ocampo, in an interview, said the case is merely a revival of trumped-up charges against them during Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo’s presidency.
He said that during Arroyo’s term, the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (Ialag) headed by then National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and then Department of Justice Sec. Raul Gonzales filed multiple murder charges against them. Ocampo was arrested on 2007, and posted bail upon the order of the Supreme Court.
Ialag was deemed by United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston as a means by which the government prosecutes and punishes “enemies of the state.” “The government was forced to abolish Ialag, but to our surprise our case remained,” Ocampo said.
Rachel Pastores of the Public Interest Law Center asked the lower court to refrain from hearing the case. “We still have pending motion for reconsideration in the Supreme Court,” she said.
Human rights group Karapatan has documented 570 cases of illegal arrests and detention from June 2010 to December 2013. The group also documented 427 political prisoners, as of December 2013, including 152 persons arrested under Aquino’s term.
Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan said that almost all of the cases, like those of detained NDFP consultants, are criminal charges spuriously filed based on highly questionable evidence and fabricated testimonies.
“Leaders of people’s organizations in Negros, for instance, are constantly threatened with fabricated criminal charges of the (military and police). Under the Aquino government, the assault on political dissenters through the filing of trumped-up charges is on the rise. In an attempt to silence opposition, they make up all sort of charges using the wildest of their imagination,” Palabay said.
The groups called on the government to free all political prisoners, and demanded that the practice of filing trumped-up cases against leaders and members of progressive organizations be stopped.
“Trumped-up charges are obviously meant to stifle the freedom of movement of political dissenters. This is the bigger crime. The Aquino government should stop silencing its critics, or his regime is bound to face bigger protests for violating human rights here and there,” Palabay said.
In a related development, Karapatan also slammed the plan of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Armed Forces to transfer Andrea Rosal, daughter of the late Roger Rosal of the Communist Party of the Phillippines, from the NBI custody to Camp Aguinaldo.
“It is inhumane to transfer the nine-month pregnant Andrea to Camp Aguinaldo, considering her condition and other gross violation of her rights, as if her arrest is not illegal enough,” Palabay said.
Karapatan fears that Rosal might suffer the fate of the two pregnant women of Morong 43 who suffered torture when they were arrested and detained in a military camp in 2010.
“We demand for her immediate release including her companions, so that her immediate admission to a hospital where her urgent needs will be addressed,” Palabay said.
