Saturday, March 10, 2007 Militant groups decry 'hunt' for Satur By Danuilo V. Adorador III
LOCAL militants on Friday denounced a court ruling indicting Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo in the purge that killed hundreds of suspected government spies within the rebel movement decades ago.
Lawyer Beverly Musni, head of the militant human rights group Karapatan in Northern Mindanao, linked the arrest warrant issued against Ocampo to the May elections, alleging that militants are either being killed or slapped with trumped-up charges.
"The GMA administration has upped to the maximum level its effort to deny progressive forces and individuals victory this election by executing mass leaders like Gandiano, or arresting them, like ka Satur," said Musni, in text message to this paper, referring to Dalmacio Gandinao, an activist, who was killed by armed men early February.
The charges against Ocampo, stemmed from the discovery last year of a mass grave of victims of an alleged communist purge in Inopacan in central Leyte province, about 610 kilometers southeast of Manila.
The military, citing testimonies of several former communist New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas, said the victims were suspected "deep penetration agents" who were ordered executed by the Communist Party central committee, led by party founder Jose Maria Sison, Ocampo, and others.
But Musni said the mass graves could be "fake," put up only by the military, such as the Bukidnon mass graves it presented that later, according to militants, turned out to be an ordinary graveyard.
Musni added: "A warrant for Ka Satur but none for the butcher Jovito Palparan despite the Melo and Alston reports?"
Musni was referring to the Melo Commission report, which said the military was involved in some of the nationwide killings directed against militants, and United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston's findings affirming the report.
The commission's report also blamed goons, NPA, and other armed elements for some of the killings.
Palparan, a retired general, is being blamed by the militants for the killings of activists. The military denied its role in the murders.
Romeo Capulong, lawyer for Representative Satur Ocampo, said he would challenge the warrants in the Supreme Court.
"These are all utterly baseless charges. He is innocent," Capulong said.
Capulong said both Ocampo, president of the left-wing Bayan Muna party, and Sison were in military detention at the time. (sunnex)
