Rights lawyers dispute Malacañang: Political Prisoners exist in the Philippines

“Three hundred sixty political prisoners still languish in Philippine jails contrary to Malacañang’s denial,” asserted   NUPL Secretary General Atty. Edre Olalia.

“It might be shocking for Malacanang to find out that there are still political prisoners, several of whom are  our clients,” Olalia sarcastically commented on behalf of the group of lawyers that handles several political prisoners, victims of extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture and arbitrary arrests as well as peasant, worker and urban poor cases.

Olalia made the assertion in reaction to the recent statement issued by Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, who reportedly boldly claimed there were no more political prisoners in the Philippines.

The NUPL, established in September 2007 amid rising cases of extrajudicial killings and forcible abductions attributed to state forces, has over 400 members nationwide comprising lawyers, law students and paralegals . It has  discovered and known all along that the alleged acts of the prisoners they  are representing or helping are, even if hypothetically admitted, actually political in nature.

Olalia noted that only a minority of political detainees were charged with rebellion. At least 85 % of suspected political offenders are improperly charged with non-bailable ordinary crimes and not with rebellion. They were accused of committing murder, arson, illegal possession of firearms or explosives, physical injuries and other common crimes. “We have assessed that most of these are actually false or fabricated charges that further persecute these detainees, degrade their stature, mock the basic rules of evidence and is a travesty of justice. These, on top of the multifarious violations of their rights including torture and harassment.”

Recently,  NUPL lawyers had an audience with Justice Secretary Leila De Lima and Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III where they pointed out two dirty tricks that gave notoriety to the past Arroyo administration: Firstly, charging political prisoners with common crimes and, secondly, the improvident use of “John/Jane Does” in criminal informations filed in court. This odious practice continues until today.

Political activists are the usual victims of the improvident use of John/Jane Does. Whenever an information involving “John/Jane Does” is hastily filed in court, spurious witnesses belatedly spring up to identify activists and members of  political  organizations supposedly as the unknown suspects, by fabricating affidavits naming certain persons to be the John/Jane Does in the charge sheet.

“After the political activists are identified in bad faith as the John/Jane Does,  arrest warrants are issued and they are arrested without any preliminary investigation in violation of their right to due process,” Olalia added.

The NUPL, which just marked its 4^th year anniversary last month, has joined growing calls  for a “ general, omnibus and unconditional amnesty for all political prisoners” as a matter of justice long overdue.

Aside from their meeting with the justice secretary, the NUPL visited the Batangas Provincial Jail to talk with seven political prisoners and coordinated with the local chapter of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP-Batangas) to extend to them legal assistance in close collaboration with the NUPL. One of the political prisoners visited by the NUPL in Batangas was Maricon Montajes, a mass communication student of the University of the Philippines . She was charged with Illegal Possession of Explosives, Violation of the Fire Arm Ban under the Omnibus Election Code, and Illegal Possession of Fire Arms and Ammunition.

While some political detainees have already been freed, Secretary De Lima noted that the Justice Department is working to have more of them released in the near future through the Presidential Committee on Bail, Release, and Pardon (PCBREP). Secretary De Lima agreed with the legal position of NUPL and recognized its concerns,  telling them that a directive will be issued to the National Prosecution Service (NPS) to form a committee that will study these issues  and draft a department circular to address this problem. It was thus totally puzzling to the NUPL delegation that, unlike the military and Malacanang, the DOJ tacitly recognizes that there are political prisoners.

The existence of political prisoners in several parts of the country is an obvious matter of fact that Malacanang will be hard put to deny with a straight face like the dictator Marcos. #

Reference: Atty. Edre U. Olalia, NUPL Secretary General (09175113373)

FrEEdom

Not even the foreshadowing ferocity of Typhoon “Pedring” concealed the immense delight of Maricon Montajes and six other political detainees inside the Batangas Provincial Jail, as they shared their stories to our group of lawyers and paralegals who visited them last Wednesday.

The 21-year-old Montajes, a native of Davao City, was a Film and Audio Visual Communication student at the University of the Philippines-Diliman when she was “illegally arrested” together with two other youths last June 3, 2010 by elements of the Philippine Air Force while on an exposure and integration trip with farmers in Taysan, Batangas.

Accustomed to the nurturing environment of a close-knit family back in Mindanao, the diminutive Montajes, also known as “Eedom” to friends, has since learned to lean on her fellow political detainees and share her joys and tears with them. “Sa kulungan, ang pagsuko ng malayang kaisipan ang pangunahing kalaban na dapat talunin (In prison, the temptation to surrender the freedom to think independently is the No. 1 enemy one must conquer),” she said.

The howling rain almost drowned her accounts of seemingly endless, rough interrogations and “torture” that she and her friends suffered after they were arrested; and, her lament over the slow resolution of the cases filed against them.

Eedom decried the government’s “criminalization” of their status, an irony that was not lost on her. As it was before, it is still so now. “We were falsely presented as NPA rebels, but we were charged with common crimes,” she bewailed. They are facing such charges as illegal possession of firearms and explosives, election gun ban violation, and frustrated homicide.

The charges shocked her childhood friends in Davao City, where she is known as someone “who would never do anyone or any living organism on earth any harm.” Consistently a student leader, Eedom spent her elementary and high school years at the city’s Stella Maris Academy, where she was a “grand slam class president from elementary to high school, became vice president of the Student Coordinating Council and president of the Social Studies Club until she graduated with academic honors in 2007.”

“Young as she was, she already manifested a strong sense of justice and unwavering leadership among her peers, the embodiment of a Marisian leader possessing the kind of faith in God’s people,” said the academic community of Stella Maris in a statement calling for her and her companions’ release. “Maricon’s passion for what is good and just is clearly expressed in her art, in her dances, music and poetry, where she knows no bounds but freedom in relaying the kind of social consciousness expected of a true Marisian.”

Earlier that day, in a meeting, our delegation from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) brought the cases of Montajes and her companions to the attention of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

Records of the rights watchdog Karapatan show that out of the country’s  360 political prisoners as of August 2011, at least 303 (84.17  percent) have been charged with common crimes. Only 15 (4.17 percent) have been charged with rebellion. Twenty others have been charged with common crimes in addition to rebellion and two are charged with “terrorism.”

“This phenomenon continues despite the fact that even the testimonial and documentary bases—spurious or otherwise—submitted to the prosecutors show that the alleged acts are obviously in furtherance of one’s political beliefs,” stated an NUPL aide mémoire submitted to De Lima during the meeting.

We also presented to De Lima the rampant and improvident use by prosecutors of the “John Doe” information in court, in violation of the justice department’s Circular No. 50, which mandates, among other things,  that other appropriate descriptions of a particular “John Doe” must be elicited from supposed witnesses, to distinguish him or set him apart from the others.

The October 1999 department circular also directed public prosecutors “to place a new name in the Information in lieu of a John Doe only when the description of this John Doe as appearing in the sworn statement of a witness substantially tallies with the description of the person in John Doe’s stead.” Yet, despite these clear directives, public interests lawyers are still  “confronted with this frustrating and unjust practice and the same continues to be violated and not strictly complied with.”

“There is from our experience on the ground, a continuing trend to indiscriminately file charges and secure warrants of arrests against our clients who are invariably leaders, members of legal mass organizations, NGO workers, party-list groups and even human rights advocates by means of ‘John Doe’ cases, which are intended to silence or neutralize them and deter others from joining their causes,” the NUPL noted.

We hope changes are forthcoming. De Lima said she “agreed” with the NUPL’s “legal posturing” and committed to immediately form a committee to draft guidelines relating to the criminalization of political offenses and the use of John Doe charges. “It is just a question then of how to operationalize (these guidelines) and make our public prosecutors understand,” De Lima said.

Indeed, it is the height of irony that Eedom and other political offenders continue to languish in various jails, while those who sponsored and promoted the culture of impunity in our country remain scot-free in this supposed era of “matuwid na daan”—shamelessly enjoying their plundered riches and flaunting their residual power and influence.

But, as political detainee and teacher Charity Dino noted during the meeting: “Mga katawan lang talaga namin ang puwedeng ikulong ng mga rehas na bakal (It’s only our bodies that they put behind a jail’s iron bars).”

Free Eedom. 

Free them all.

By: Isagani Zarate

Palparan Should End Up in Jail not in Congress “Stop Daydreaming and Face the Music”

“Gen. Palparan’s incorrigible, remorseless and unmitigated demonization of defenseless civilians merits him a place behind bars  more than a seat in Congress.” This was the statement of Atty. Edre Olalia, Secretary General of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), in response to reports that retired Major General Jovito Palparan was planning to run for a partylist seat in Congress in 2013 on the basis of his “expertise in security.”

“He should not be daydreaming this early. It would be healthier for him if he deals with the reality that he is facing and will be facing a string of multiple charges in different fora and that sooner or later, justice will catch up on him, “Atty. Olalia added.

Trying to smokescreen the strength of the evidence against him, Palparan manifested his intention to run for Congress in an interview during a break in the clarificatory hearing of the preliminary investigation conducted by a panel of the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the enforced disappearance of University of the Philippines (UP) student-activists Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan.

“The partylist system is intended to empower the marginalized sectors and not to  perpetuate into power those who marginalize them. It is supposed to be a social justice mechanism intended to give more in law to those who have less in life and not to those who have destroyed many lives,” Atty. Olalia pointed out.

Palparan continues to  label activists, progressive groups and members of Congress as enemies of the state. This fascist way of thinking and messianic delusions, according to Atty. Olalia, is the mindset for  extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances as it makes no distinction between armed rebels and defenseless civilians and as it gives no regard to legal processes and to human rights.

Meanwhile, during the pendency of the preliminary investigation, Wilfredo Ramos, one of the eye-witnesses for the complainants, was approached three times in their barangay by military men to recant his testimony in exchange for economic considerations. Ramos  vividly recognized a security aide of Palparan as one of the abductors. The aide was later named as Staff Sergeant Edgardo Osorio of the 24th Intelligence Service Unit of the Philippine Army based in Fort Bonifacio. “This is clearly a case of  subtle harassment by the military in a desperate attempt to weaken the merits of the case and to relieve of any criminal responsibility all those who are  part of the conspiracy,” Atty. Olalia commented.

Also, Raymond Manalo  identified during the clarificatory hearing one of his abductors as Major Harry Baliaga, the  identified suspect in the abduction of activist Jonas Burgos.  Manalo is a human rights victim himself and an eyewitness for the complainants in the case of Sherlyn and Karen. “Baliaga’s involvement both in the enforced disappearance of the Manalo brothers and of Jonas only attests to the  fact that security forces systematically perpetrate extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in that they should not be taken simply as individual cases of human rights violations unrelated to each other,”Atty. Olalia insisted.

Criminal Charges Against Palparan Nears Resolution

The clarificatory hearing last Friday concluded the preliminary investigation on the criminal charges against Palparan et. al. for the enforced disappearance of the two UP students.   “The clarificatory hearing reinforced that the testimonies of the witnesses for the complainants were vivid, candid, consistent and straightforward.” Atty. Olalia noted. “This is as opposed to the telling inconsistencies between the testimonies of the respondents denying the accusations against them to save their skin.” In fact, Palparan was compelled to make damning admissions that further “connect the dots,“ he  added.

“Given the strength of the evidence against Palparan and his cohorts, the context and the circumstances of the case and related incidents, we  trust that there is a sufficient ground to hold the respondents for trial and that corresponding charges will be filed soon,” Atty. Olalia  asserted. “We should not let up and be vigilant in ensuring that the perpetrators of this horrendous crime will be accountable for their felonious acts,”   he concluded.

The legal team for the complainants and their witnesses include Atty. Julian Oliva, Atty. Ephraim Cortez,  Atty. Cristina Yambot, Atty. Jobert Pahilga, Atty. Jill Santos and Atty. Olalia, all members of the NUPL. .#

Reference: Atty. Edre U. Olalia, NUPL Secretary General (09175113373)

WHO WILL DEFEND THE DEFENDERS?

In our practice court in law school our professor would advice us: if you are strong on the law - pound on the law; if your are strong on the facts -  pound on the facts; but if you are weak both on the facts and the law -  pound on the table!

But in the Philippines, the security forces don’t pound on the law; they don’t pound on the facts; they don’t pound on the table …  they pound on the lawyers, especially human rights lawyers.

Human rights lawyers have committed to help promote and protect the rights of the people, particularly the oppressed and marginalized, from the abuses of the few who belong to the dominant elite of our society. But, the spate of impunity is so brazen that even human rights advocates, both lawyers and non-lawyers alike, are not spared from the repressive apparatus of state forces.

This is coupled with the failure of the judicial and the legislative branches of the government to counteract the coercive undertakings of the executive branch and its security forces without respect to the rights of defenseless civilians and  the so called “rule of law.” With this set-up, any semblance of order and faith that remains in the legal processes crumbles, making things worse as perpetrators are left free from any accountability.

The inadequacy, ineffectivity and failure of existing legal remedies to obliterate the climate of impunity is apparent in the cases of human rights defender Eden Marcellana, peasant leader Eddie Gumanoy and journalist – activist Beng Hernandez which, despite United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee (HRC) resolutions finding the Philippine government guilty of human rights abuses, has been left unsolved as the perpetrators remain free from any accountability.

In this light, in the case of Razon vs. Tagitis[1], the Supreme Court itself recognized that it is an extremely difficult condition for the disappeared (and of those extrajudicially killed) victims’ families to get justice because it is the State itself, the party whose involvement is alleged, which investigates the incidents of enforced disappearances.

“Past experiences in other jurisdictions show that evidentiary difficulties are generally three-fold. First, there may be a deliberate concealment of the identities of the direct perpetrators. Experts note that abductors are well organized, armed and usually members of the military or police forces. Second, deliberate concealment of pertinent evidence of the disappearance is a distinct possibility. Third is the element of denial; in many cases, the state authorities deliberately deny that the enforced disappearance ever occurred.”[2]

Victimizing Human Rights Lawyers

Since 2001, state forces have been waging a systematic and conscious attack on activists, farmers, workers, indigenous peoples, journalists, human rights advocates, and even church people and people’s lawyers. As the strategy of the counterinsurgency efforts of the government, Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Plan Freedom Watch) has been linked with extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and harassments as it does not distinguish between rebels and civilians, and underground and legal organizations, such vio9lations as well as the filing of false charges have been carried out with odious brazenness and cruelty.

These patterns of human rights violations continue even with the promises of the new administration to end government abuses and excesses – which PNoy calls “utak wangwang.” 48 cases of extrajudicial killings have already been documented in the first year of the Aquino administration alone.

Out of the hundreds of civilians that were extrajudicially killed since January 2001, 27 were lawyers, 8 of whom were involved in human rights issues. The human rights lawyers who were killed were:

Atty. Juvy Magsino of Mindoro, counsel for militant groups and local official who was vocal against military abuses and mining projects affecting the people. She was riddled with bullets while driving her car.

Atty. Teresita Vidamo of the Public Attorneys Office of Las Pinas, Metro Manila. She was handling controversial land and labor disputes at the time she was shot. 

Atty. Arbet Yongco of Cebu, private prosecutor in a parricide case against a cult leader belonging to a powerful family. She was shot inside her house.

Atty. Felidito Dacut of Leyte, counsel for unions and people’s organizations. He was shot by armed men riding in a motorcycle while inside a passenger jeepney on his way to buy milk for his 3-year old daughter.  He was then handling cases involving human rights and labor disputes.

Atty. Norman Bocar of Samar. He was counsel for militant organizations and partylist groups when he was shot.

Atty. Gil Gojol, Former local public official, former bar president, professor and legal counsel of progressive party-list groups and peoples’ organizations.

Attys. Cynthia Oquendo and Concepcion Brizuela of Mindanao. They were part of those massacred by the powerful Ampatuan family closely affiliated with the former administration.

Atty. Brizuela, an officer of the Union of Peoples’ in Mindanao (UPLM) and founding member of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), was interviewed by a foreign mission of judges and lawyers regarding the threat on her life a year before she was killed.

During the same period, 42 other lawyers who were involved in human rights issues and cases were subjected to different forms of attacks. Human rights lawyers and their families received death threats and are subjected to constant or periodical surveillance. Some of them are harassed, intimidated, red-tagged and have their offices ransacked by unidentified armed men.

These unresolved killings and continuing attacks on lawyers and judges is an attack on the legal profession, a travesty of due process, the “rule of law” and the system of justice. As these incidents are the function of the counterinsurgency program of the government, it is not surprising that a considerable number of victimized lawyers are either counsels of entities conveniently labeled as “enemies of the state” or are themselves labelled as such.

It is very ironic that the rights of the human rights defenders are violated. Indeed, it is the height of impunity when human rights advocates themselves become the hapless victims of the climate of impunity.

This manifests that there is a deliberate and methodical effort to thwart attempts to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions. This requires no less than a reciprocally deliberate and methodical effort to defend the defenders themselves from human rights abuses through a strong mass movement, a broad network of support and campaign, and international solidarity and vigilance.

With the continuing incidents of killings ,forcible disappearance, torture and arbitrary arrests  and with the perpetrators still able to evade punishment to this day, there is an  obvious  lack of correct pro –people  political will or sincerity on the  part of the Aquino administration to eradicate  the climate of impunity that has long prevailed  and which continues to persecute mostly  those from the marginalized sectors or those who stand by them

The struggle to change this impunity that has been engendered remains a challenge to those of us in the legal profession and, of course, all other human rights defenders. The perils in our line of work and commitment as human rights lawyers which we continuously face day in and day out will not discourage us, much less demoralize our ranks, and from standing by the rights and interests of the poor and the oppressed in our society and  struggling, in and outside of the courtrooms, for the causes that we believe in.

As one of our people’s lawyers has said: “It does not matter how long you have lived, what is important is what you have done to serve the people and the county.”[3] Indeed, it has been said that only those who choose to fight with the dangers of the battlefield and sacrificed the comfort of the fence live beyond irrelevance.[4]

Finally, As NUPL Chairperson Emeritus Romeo Capulong said,

“We have brave clients. They deserve brave lawyers.”

---

[1] GR No. 182498, February 16, 2010

[2] Razon vs. Tagitis, GR No. 182498, February 16, 2010

[3] Atty. Kathrina Castillo, NUPL National Auditor, “A Young and Fearless People’s Lawyer,” Attacks on Lawyers: Human Rights Defenders Under Siege, NUPL, 2011.

[4] Former Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, Message to the NUPL Founding Congress, September 15, 2007.

National Secretariat
National Union of Peoples' Lawyers(NUPL)
3F Erythrina Bldg., Maaralin corner Matatag Sts. Central District,Quezon City, Philippines
Tel.No.920-6660,Telefax No. 927- 2812
 Email addresses:nupl2007@gmail.com and nuplphilippines@yahoo.com
"Visit the NUPL  at http://www.nupl.net/



By calling yourselves the 'people's lawyer,' you have made a remarkable choice. You decided not to remain in the sidelines. Where human rights are assaulted, you have chosen to sacrifice the comfort of the fence for the dangers of the battlefield. But only those who choose to fight on the battlefield live beyond irrelevance."  Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, in his message to the NUPL Founding Congress,Sept. 15, 2007

AFP CHALLENGED – WALK THE TALK AND PRODUCE THE UNNAMED SUSPECTS IN CASE OF MISSING STUDENTS Complainants’ Private Lawyers Affirm Respect to Due Process that Gen.Palparan and cabal denied their clients

“ A singular opportunity to further help ferret out the truth in the interest of substantial justice right there and then was lost.” This was the statement of Atty. Edre Olalia, Secretary General of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)after the 2^nd hearing for preliminary investigation yesterday on the case of the abduction, rape and torture among others of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeῇo. 

During the hearing and after much argumentation and deliberation, the DOJ Panel  eventually denied the motion of the NUPL, counsel for the complainants, to allow one of their  eyewitnesses Wilfredo Ramos to point  before the Panel and ask the identity of one of the abductors - named as one of the John Does in the complaint - whom Ramos vividly recognized to be in the  room. Ramos was then 14 years old when he actually witnessed a group of armed men forcibly take away the two students and farmer Manuel Merino in June 2006. He and his father were threatened, intimidated and maltreated.

The suspect whom Ramos positively identified wore smoke glasses throughout the preliminary investigation. “According to Ramos, the suspect was seated almost right behind retired military general  Palparan. He was conspicuously  closely guarding the general  like a shadow before, during and after the hearing,” according to Atty. Olalia. “This is the height of brazenness and arrogance. One of the alleged but still unnamed perpetrators had the gall and temerity to go to the hearing and display himself,  intimidating and eyeing Ramos all throughout  the hearing. He was openly thumbing his nose, as it were, at the whole justice system ” Atty. Olalia added.

Ramos posthaste  stepped out  in the middle of the hearing and broke down inside the comfort room, his head buried in his knees and quivering in fear on the floor. He was profusely crying and was inconsolable.   He refused to come back to the hearing as he was enveloped with torment.

Contending that Ramos should be allowed to point out who among the persons in the gallery is the one of the unnamed suspects in order that justice will be fully served, NUPL lawyers argued that the motion to identify the suspect – who was not present during the first hearing -- was for the complainants to ascertain and verify his  identity.  They argued that public prosecutors should have expanded powers and wide latitude and discretion  especially in cases of political  killings and disappearances.

  The NUPL explained that the predicament of the complainants is that the eyewitness only recognized the man when he saw him again yesterday but did not know his name as this is one of the modus operandi of perpetrators. “We [NUPL lawyers]  shall of course respect the suspect’s due process rights and give him the reasonable opportunity to  controvert all the allegations against him if he so wishes,” Atty. Olalia stated. “This is something that, based on complainants’ evidence,  Palparan and his conspirators  denied Cadapan,  Empeῇo, the complainants’ witnesses and countless others, ”  Olalia,   who is part of a 7-person legal team from NUPL headed by Atty. Jun Oliva, added.

“That is why we are engaged in all these protracted, and even frustrating and tedious, yet necessary legal process. We officers of the court would want to be fair and reasonable. It would have been so easy to just point him out publicly without leave of the DOJ Panel. But we opted not at that point.” he said.

“This is not prejudicial to Gen. Palparan and the unnamed suspect as the former’s lawyer contended because precisely the latter is being given the chance to stand up and clear his name if so warranted, rather than to hide behind the coattails of his principal. Are they unwittingly saying that he is part of the conspiracy? ” Olalia pointed out.

 The complainants are now mulling all the legal and investigative steps they have to undertake on their own despite the limitations and difficulties. But the lawyers are also taking to task  the professed commitment of the AFP Human Rights Office and the Provost Marshal General to cooperate in the identification of the other suspects.

“We challenge the military  to walk the talk and help identify the suspect and produce, in the next hearing, the person whom witness Wilfredo Ramos  privately pointed to his lawyers as one of the abductors,” Atty. Olalia remarked, even as the complainants have already finished the filing of their application with the Justice Secretary to place the respondents in the Watch List of the Immigration. #

 

Reference: Atty. Edre U. Olalia, NUPL Secretary General (09175113373)

SC Decision Fortifies Criminal Case Against Palparan in Cadapan=Empeno Disappearance and Torture - NUPL

21 June 21, 2011
NEWS RELEASE

Reference: Atty. Ephraim Cortez, NUPL assistant secretary general for legal services (09164093986)

The recent Supreme Court decision affirming the writ of amparo for two missing UP students bolsters the criminal complaint against Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan and five other identified suspects for the disappearance and torture of the students, said the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL).

NUPL, counsel for the mothers of missing UP students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan, said in a statement, “The SC ruled that Palparan had personal participation in the abduction of Karen and Sherlyn. In fact the court has identified him and his cohorts as personally liable for the disappearance of Karen and Sherlyn, and had ordered them to cause their release.”

The NUPL referred to the SC decision dated May 31, 2011, penned by retired Justice Conchita Carpio Morales, affirming that Palparan, Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado, Lt. Col. Rogelio Boac, 2Lt. Francis Mirabelle Samson, M/Sgt. Donald Caigas, and Arnel Enriquez must immediately release Cadapan and Empeno. “By pointing to them as the persons liable for the disappearance of the two students, the Court itself gave credence to the charge of arbitrary detention of the two students against Palparan et al. The SC thus submitted ‘probable cause’ in the criminal case against the accused,” said NUPL assistant secretary general for legal services Atty. Ephraim Cortez.

Probable cause is the standard by which a person may be arrested. It means that the facts or evidence point to a particular person who committed a specific crime. Testimony of Manalo remains unshaken Atty. Cortez said that the SC also validated the credibility of the testimony of Raymond Manalo, who is one of the witnesses in the criminal case against Palparan. “The testimony of Manalo, which the Court said was forthright, consistent and credible, will be the tough backbone of the criminal charges. It has been unshaken so far even by malicious aspersions,” said Atty. Cortez. The NUPL will present at least six of the same witnesses from the writ of amparo petition, in the criminal case. The testimonies in totality confirm that the military has custody of Karen and Sherlyn.

The criminal charges against Palparan et al are for arbitrary detention, serious physical injuries, torture, and violation of the law on the rights of prisoners. Certain Mickey, Donald and Billy Does were also alleged as the ones who raped Sherlyn. also impleaded M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario and several John and Jane Does from the 24th and 56th Infantry Battalion, and the 7th Infantry Division were also impleaded by Erlinda Cadapan and Concepcion Empeno, who filed the charges last May. “Palparan’s denial of any of the allegations should be treated as simple yet puerile defenses, not exemption from criminal charges. His arrest is imminent,” said Atty. Cortez. The mothers and NUPL are awaiting the notice of preliminary investigation, where prosecutors will determine probable cause and thereafter issue a warrant of arrest.

Writ of amparo is immediately executory
The SC also ordered the incumbent commanding generals of the 7th Infantry Division and the 24th Infantry Battalion to produce the students, along with farmer Manuel Merino. In the definitive ruling, the SC further stated that a writ of amparo is immediately executory, “otherwise it will defeat the purpose of the writ.”

The NUPL called on the commanding general of the 7th Infantry Division, Maj. Gen Juanito P. Lopez, to fully cooperate in the continuing search for the missing persons.“The SC decision clearly and forcefully directs the military to release or at least point us to where Karen, Sherlyn and Manuel are. President Noynoy Aquino as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) should heed this order,” said Atty. Cortez.

 

Command responsibility

NUPL however lamented the decision for clearing former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former AFP chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, former police director general Gen. Avelino Razon, and Gen. Romeo Tolentino from liability.

“The assertion of NUPL is that Mrs. Arroyo personally knew, and could have prevented the disappearance of Karen and Sherlyn because of her administration’s policy Oplan Bantay Laya. She and her generals tacitly knew, approved, tolerated, supervised, managed, induced and/or ordered the operations which has resulted in the disappearance of hundreds of civilians,” said NUPL secretary-general Atty. Edre U. Olalia.

NUPL asserts that Oplan Bantay Laya, the past administration’s counter-insurgency program, is the framework of the huge number of extra judicial killings, enforced disappearances and other unsolved human rights violations.

“The disappearance and torture of Karen, Sherlyn and Manuel were human rights violations perpetrated by foot soldiers and policemen under Arroyo’s aggressive counter-insurgency policy. We do not implead Arroyo simply based on command responsibility,” said Olalia.

Appeal for dignity and justice
Atty. Sandra Jill Santos, a UP Law graduate who was a contemporary and friend of Sherlyn and cocounsel in the criminal case, said “We will exhaust all avenues to make the perpetrators accountable. They have caused enough pain to the families of the Karen and Sherlyn, and countless others who disappeared during General Palparan’s ‘reign of terror’. Various reports have shown that he continued to tyrannize human rights defenders even after retiring. The perpetrators must be put behind bars so that justice may be served.”

“After five years of agonized searching, it is time to give the families and friends of the missing, dignity and justice,” she said. The UP community will mark the fifth year of their disappearance on Sunday, 26 June 2011.

NUPL is also the counsel of other victims of human rights violations, such as the 43 health workers illegally arrested in Morong, Rizal last year, and Fil-Am activist Melissa Roxas who was arrested in 2009 and later released. It also calls on other victims to file counter-charges in a bid to stop impunity.#

On Proposed Military Honors Burial: Rights Lawyers Say: As Always, Shameless

PRESS STATEMENT

10 June 2011

On Proposed Marcos Military Honors Burial

Rights Lawyers Say: As Always, Shameless

Oxy-moronic, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers said on the proposal to give military honors to the late Ferdinand Marcos who is universally regarded as a dictator and criminal.

Actually an attempt to combine two terms, oxymoron and moronic, this self-made coinage first springs to mind when coming to terms to a dictator’s burial under this government’s formula.

That Marcos the butcher seems to be headed for a burial of course should be good for his hometown’s health issues, if his cadaver were genuine and not just a wax figure. But to be buried with full military honors?  The idea sounds surreal and weird, but at the same time, odious.

Military honors, just like military intelligence, rivet the mind. Can this be possible? To begin with, do they exist? But military honors are just as incredibly opposite terms. Generations of  generals and chiefs of staff, an insider, the treasurer, calls them thieves. His reportage does not depict an isolated instance of greed but a wholesale institutionalized rapacity .

So is there anything significant from being accorded military honors? Not much we must say. Perhaps the exception is simply the singular distinction of being awarded congratulatory pats by thieves.

We really could not care less about Marcos being kept among the company of his cohorts in the military. They are simply one and the same, identical twins through and through. They are fullthroated poster boys and girls of everything that injustice has been associated with. So indeed go ahead bury Marcos with the pomp and pageantry of military honors, it surely does not matter.

According Marcos his military honors would be wasting the peoples’ money extorted through taxes on a boondoggle. This intended event is a splurge that certainly could have been put to beneficial uses. Adding the money up to the pot for lotto winnings would have more moral values than spending them for a lanyard in Marcos’ funeral procession. 

The State’s participation in dressing up a cadaver of ghoulish symbolisms is by any measure a foul deed.  It teaches wrong values. It educates a wrong message. It stultifies the mind and soul to believe that in this part of the planet, a butcher and thief invariably gets to be a hero someday, courtesy not the least from an incredible number of supposed representatives of the people who, from the glare and height of their temporary pedestals,  have shamelessly turned blind overnight to history and from a top-level government official that rationalizes what is politically expedient to what is right and moral.

The bourgeoisie led by the current President relishes the world’s salutation of our history of people power. Yet his government plays a conspirator’s to the destruction of this same image by adoring the villain that its bourgeois power play had purportedly disposed of.

Marcos can very well have the military honors he and his cohorts want. We will not lose sleep over it. They can fire their guns a million or even a billion times to praise and kiss the behind to bid adieu to a dictator, butcher, thief and plunderer rolled into one. They can stage the pageantry they wish to enact. But leave the peoples’ money out of it. And do not distort what this plan is all about – this taut story of musical chair among leaders where only names and tags change but always absent the commitment to the genuine overthrow of the system of abuse and exploitation.

It is embarrassing to be debating this oxymoron. Actually it is shameful to be even  making known our position again on this middling topic. Oxy-moronic, the combination of oxymoron and moronic behavior, for as Marcos and the thieves and fascists in the military bear the same feathers, let them flock together.#

Reference: Atty. Edre U. Olalia

Secretary General

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