Sunday, November 04, 2007
‘Ka Yuri’ gets ready for battle
SUSPECTED New People’s Army (NPA) leader Ricardo Bellamia said that some lawyers are offering to help him prove in court that he has nothing to do with the insurgency.
Bellamia, 47, named Pedro Rosito, a human rights and labor lawyer and former president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu City chapter, as one of those who offered help.
Bellamia and his wife Editha Peras Bellamia also hired lawyer Noel Archival for his appearance at the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 25 in Danao City tomorrow.
Bellamia is detained at the Guadalupe Police Station in Cebu City following his arrest in the southern town of Dalaguete, Cebu last Friday.
Bayan Muna secretary-general Arman Perez said in a radio dyLA interview yesterday that Bellamia has been active in their meetings and as an adviser of the Nagkahiusang Drayber sa Sugbo.
“He is definitely not a rebel. He is one of our legitimate organizers and a council member of the KMU (Kilusang Mayo Uno). He is an administrator of the National Federation of Labor, which is under the umbrella of KMU,” Perez said.
But Senior Supt. Augusto Marquez Jr., chief of the Regional Intelligence Division of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7, said that Bellamia led the group that killed at least four soldiers from the 78th Infantry Battalion in Dalid, Tabuelan town and in Sumon and Kalanggaman in Tuburan, and Baliang, Danao City.
In issuing the arrest warrant for Bellamia and other co-accused on Nov. 12, 2004, RTC Judge Sylvia Aguirre Paderanga merged the murder charges into one case of rebellion.
Bellamia said that barangay councilor-elect Peddy Muñoz of Casay, Dalaguete, Cebu is also contacting former Provincial Board member Orvi Ortega, a lawyer, to support his defense. He said Ortega knows that he is not a rebel.
Ortega is a resident of Barangay Talaga, Argao, which is adjacent to Casay where Bellamia was living with his family and when he was arrested at 2 p.m. Friday.
Bellamia said his four children, aged 9, 12, 16 and 19, saw him being arrested.
“Before I left, I told my children to be calm and strong. I am sure the case against me will be dismissed because I have done nothing wrong,” he said.
But Senior Supt. Marquez has said that Bellamia is a high-ranking officer of the NPA and has taken part in attacks on military detachments in Cebu’s mid-north areas.
“We have witnesses who have identified them (Bellamia and his men) as the ones who ambushed soldiers belonging to the 78th Infantry Battalion,” Marquez said.
Perez, however, said that Bellamia is just a labor organizer whose task is to disseminate information on labor laws and workers’ rights.
Perez compared the arrest of Bellamia to what happened to Beethoven Avila and Preciosa Daño, coordinators for Kabataan and Bayan Muna party-list groups.
Perez said that Avila and Daño were arrested last April and were subjected to “psychological torture,” handcuffed, blindfolded and interrogated for two days by the Central Command.
He said the Regional Trial Court in Toledo City ordered their release because the arrest was illegal and violated the rights of Avila and Daño. (EOB)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (November 4, 2007 issue)
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