DOJ chief to review case of 'Morong 43'
By Edu Punay
The Philippine Star www.philstar.com
Friday, July 09, 2010
MANILA, Philippines - Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday she would review an earlier resolution of the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicting 43 health workers arrested in Rizal last February for being alleged members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
In a press conference, De Lima said she would look into the records of the case to determine if the investigating prosecutor erred in recommending the filing of criminal charges against the so-called “Morong 43.”
The 43 health workers, detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, were charged before the regional trial court of Morong, Rizal with violation of Presidential Decree 1866, as amended by Republic Act 8294, and RA 9516, which imposes penalties for illegal possession of grenades and other explosives, and Comelec Resolution No. 8714 in relation to Article 261 (q) of the Election Code, which imposed the firearms ban.
The charges were filed following inquest proceedings conducted by state prosecutor Romeo Senson last Feb. 7, or a day after the health workers were arrested in a farmhouse in Morong, Rizal.
De Lima said she is fully aware of the background of the “Morong 43” case since the Commission on Human Rights, which she used to head, has been investigating allegations of illegal arrest, illegal detention, denial of counsel, torture and other human rights violations against the arresting team.
She, however, said the DOJ would not look into the validity of the arrest, as this is the subject of a pending habeas corpus petition before the Supreme Court.
The Court of Appeals, in a ruling last March 9, junked the health workers’ petition for a writ of habeas corpus and upheld their continued detention.
Philippine military tags New People’s Army as terror group
The Manila Times – www.manilatimes.net
Friday, July 9, 2010
ZAMBOANGA CITY: The Philippine military has branded as propaganda claims by communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels that it is recruiting minors to help the government fight insurgents in Mindanao.
Captain Emmanuel Garcia, a regional army spokesman, said the allegations were baseless to hide the NPA’s continued violations of human rights on civilians and terror activities in the southern region.
The NPA accused the military of recruiting Juve Latiban (identified as Job by the military), then 16 years old, to be a member of the government militia group—Civilian Auxiliary Forces Geographical Unit—and fight insurgents.
Latiban and another soldier, Sgt. Bienvenido Arguelles, were seized by rebels on June 19 in the village of Upper Ulip in Compostela Valley’s Monkayo town and are being held as prisoners of war.
“The cat is finally out of the bag. Now it can be said without any shade of public doubt. That in its failed and defeated Operation Plan Bantay Laya II, the Tenth Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines recruits and arms minors as combat pawns in its war against the people and the revolutionary forces. That what it accuses the people’s army of doing turns out to be a matter of official policy in its ranks, long practiced in their counter-revolutionary theater,” said Rigoberto Sanchez, a spokesman for the NPA’s Merardo Arce Command.
Sanchez said the military recruiter of Latiban provided the latter and 18 other minors with fake birth certificates to cover their real ages.
Garcia, however, turned the table on the rebel group and said, “The propaganda mill of the terrorists is working overtime after a rattled silence in their panic to divert the case from the real issue of kidnapping and trying to smokescreen their apparent inability to shield their armed front from the wrath of the people in view of their terroristic attacks against our citizens, against development, against progress and against our country.”
“The irony of all ironies has been let loose by kidnappers who want to deceive the people for the nth time and divert the issue of kidnapping to their irresponsible and baseless accusation that the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit [member] they abducted is a minor. The allegation is a ploy to malign the Armed Forces as an institution together with government instrumentalities and community organizations who certified that those who voluntarily joined the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit to watch over their communities are falsifiers,” he said.
Garcia said members of the paramilitary force is a community watch group against rebels and criminal elements, and that all volunteers pass through stringent screening to find out fraudulent applications.
“Volunteers are nominated by the Barangay or Municipal Peace and Order Councils thru a resolution and aside from the birth certificate, the certification of local officials as for their ages as well as the applicant’s good standing in the community is sought contrary to the communists’ recruitment tactic of hoodwink in deceiving the parents of the children whom they have recruited and put in harm’s way and deny the child warriors’ existence when they are captured, surrendered or worse, killed in combat,” he said.
Garcia said more than a dozen minors who were recruited by the NPA surrendered to the Tenth Infantry Division since last year.
“All of them recruited, armed and manipulated by the NPA under the absolute order of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in doing terroristic attacks against our own people,” he said, adding, the solid proof of a child warrior and a celebrated one at that is the case of Zaldy Canete alias Jinggoy, who surrendered to the military and admitted to have been recruited by the NPA at the age of 13 and at 16 was already fighting troops alongside veteran rebels in Compostela Valley province.
“Now, Job Latiban is being held against his will and is subjected to unimaginable torment of being abducted by a dreaded group that gained notoriety in killing people with total disregard to human rights and mass murder even of its own kind.”
“The pronouncement that Latiban attested that he is a minor is an offshoot of their systematic psychological torture against an individual under duress who might have been forced to accept a bitter choice than to suffer a deadly fate that has befallen so many God-fearing and service oriented troops whom they have abducted and mercilessly murdered in the guise of revolutionary justice like Sgt. Rolen Maglangit whom they killed in May 22 last year,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the rebels boast of a justice system where they are the prosecutor, the judge and the executioner rolled into one. He said no one can expect justice in such a mockery where cases are fabricated and the individual is forced to face a Kangaroo court against concocted pieces of evidence.
Peace talks between Manila and the rebel group collapsed in 2004 after the CPP accused then President Gloria Arroyo of reneging on several accords, among them the release of all political prisoners and the commitment to take steps to undo the inclusion of the CPP, NPA and National Democratic Front chief consultant Jose Maria Sison in the US and other nations’ list of “foreign terrorists.”
Reds hold Agusan gov at checkpoint
People’s Journal – www.journal.com.ph
By Alfred Dalizon
Thursday, July 8, 2010
SOME 15 heavily-armed New People’s Army rebels armed with machineguns set up a checkpoint on the national highway in Butuan City Tuesday night and stopped all vehicles and frisked passengers for weapons.
The guerrillas, however, failed to detect that the riders were Agusan del Sur Gov. Adolph Eduard Plaza, Army Lt. Cols. Pedrito Daquipil and Eduardo Gaces and three enlisted personnel, Caraga police director Chief Supt. Lino Calingasan said.
Investigators said the rebels believed to be members of the Northeastern Mindanao Regional Party Committee established the checkpoint in Barangay Taligaman at 10 p.m. and blocked the road with four buses and two 10-wheeler trucks loaded with logs they earlier stopped.
Calingasan said Plaza and the six soldiers were among those searched but later released by the guerrillas.
He said the rebels withdrew toward the mountainous area of Barangay Bugsukan.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment