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Saturday, March 18, 2006
Glo sued at UN; Dinky arrested
Police arrested last night a former Cabinet official, just hours after a lawyers’ group announced they had asked the United Nations to investigate President Arroyo’s violation of human rights.
Former social welfare secretary Corazon Soliman and activist Vicente Romano were arrested for leading a silent protest in Manila of about 30 people, all wearing T-shirts marked “Oust Now.”
“We are not holding a rally, we are just strolling. We are not disturbing anyone,” Soliman said. “We don’t even have placards.”
Police plan to file an illegal assembly complaint against Soliman and Romano, and a prosecutor was expected to conduct inquest proceedings last night, Metro Manila Police Chief Vidal Querol said by telephone.
Soliman is one of 10 Cabinet officials who resigned from office in mid-2005, at the height of allegations that President Arroyo had spoken with an elections commissioner about rigging the results of the May 2004 polls.
Both President Arroyo and ex-commissioner Virgilio Garcillano have denied any wrongdoing.
International
But her administration continues to be challenged by critics who doubt that she won in 2004. In late February, she declared a weeklong state of national emergency, citing attempts at a power grab.
While Proclamation 1017 was in effect, state authorities arrested some critics, including Rep. Crispin Beltran, raided one newspaper on suspicions of inciting to sedition and prohibited all rallies without permits.
A lawyers’ group yesterday confirmed they charged President Arroyo before the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) in New York and the Working Group for Arbitrary Detention (Wgad) in Geneva, Switzerland.
They cited the “illegal arrest” and “arbitrary detention” of Beltran, Anakpawis party-list representative.
Neri Javier Colmenares, spokesperson for the Council for Defense of Liberties (Codal), said the complaint was received by Marcus Schmidt, head of the petition unit of the UNHRC, and was immediately transmitted to the Wgad.
Colmenares said President Arroyo “violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international human rights laws” for the arbitrary arrest and continuing detention of Beltran in Camp Crame.
By using a 1985 case that was already dismissed as basis for Beltran’s arrest, President Arroyo is imprisoning the congressman for “his political beliefs and not because he committed a criminal act” that is strictly prohibited under international law, Colmenares added.
‘Wild West’
Colmenares said they are also asking the UN to look into threats of warrantless arrests against other members of the political opposition.
He is seeking Beltran’s release from police custody pending the investigation by the international body.
A complaint against the President for the summary execution of activists Eden Marcellana, Choy Napoles, Benjaline Hernandez and Eddie Gumanoy was also filed with the UNHRC.
Colmenares said they are “seriously concerned about the failure of government to follow judicial procedures in conducting arrests, in threatening and raiding media offices and dispersing rallies, and (they) hoped that UN intervention may force government to follow legal and constitutional processes in its dealing with opposition.”
Constitutional law expert Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ, has bewailed the government’s conduct of warrantless arrests and putting up of bounty for fugitives, saying it appeared to be a scene from “the era of the Wild, Wild West.”
‘Overkill’
Bernas described as “an overkill” the putting up of a P5-million bounty for the capture of former senator Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan and others charged with rebellion.
Bernas, one of the delegates who drafted the 1987 Constitution, said he agreed with the claims of various groups that the posting of the so-called rogues’ gallery sends a “chilling effect” on persons critical of President Arroyo.
“It violates the presumption of innocence and the right to privacy. It’s something along the lines of a police officer exhibiting people in public who have been arrested. If they have not been convicted or not even been charged yet, they are presumed to be innocent and their dignity should be respected. There is the very serious assault on dignity I think,” he said.
Colmenares warned that government cannot use public money for political “witch-hunting.”
“These are witch-hunting processes that use not only public funds but also the Department of Justice and the PNP. Both public offices should not be used for public persecution,” he said.
Impeachment
Honasan is being hunted by the National Bureau of Investigation, PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in connection with the coup d’ etat charges filed against him before the Makati City Regional Trial Court (RTC), over the failed July 2003 Oakwood mutiny.
The Makati RTC released an arrest warrant against Honasan last February.
Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) president Jose Anselmo Cadiz has also warned that the rogues’ gallery and bounty system hatched by the government can be used as a ground to impeach President Arroyo.
“It is likewise an impeachable offense. I think its purpose is really to instill fear among our people. This government is saying that if you oppose us, if you criticize us, then we will go relentlessly against you by filing charges,” Cadiz said.
He added that some lawyers are studying a possible case against justice department personnel, particularly over the threat to arrest party-list lawmakers.
“Under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, a public official must not favor a person, causing undue injury to a third party in the performance of judicial or administrative functions,” Cadiz said. (Sunnex/With AP)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 18, 2006 issue)
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