|
Monday, February 27, 2006
Militant solon denies raps, hits looming arrest
BAYAN Muna party-list Representative Satur Ocampo, who is now the subject of manhunt, on Sunday belied claims of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales that the subject of the warrant for his arrest was based on a pending murder, kidnapping, and illegal possession of firearms cases.
Ocampo said the charges being hurled against him by Gonzales had long been dismissed. "All trumped up charges filed against me in 1989 have been dismissed in 1991," he said.
He said the plan to arrest him and other militant and opposition leaders was part of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's way of getting back at his critics.
"They are obviously doing this: Using the illegal proclamation of a state of national emergency to silence, imprison and harass the Left and to file trumped-up charges against us," he said.
"It cannot prove their fictional charges over the alleged misuse of congressional funds so they now resort to Marcosian tactics of illegal and arbitrary arrests and the filing of trumped-up cases," the congressman added.
It was not immediately known if Ocampo and other party-list congressmen like Liza Maza of Gabriela are going to attend Monday's session following reports that they will still be arrested even during the session.
In a message sent to the La Salle Greenhills prayer gathering last Saturday, Ocampo reminded the people of the clear and present danger to the lives of activists under the Arroyo regime.
"Lest we forget, more than 80 Bayan Muna members and about 230 from other activist groups have been summarily executed since Arroyo assumed the presidency in 2001," he said.
Ocampo and other militant leaders believed that the government is more brutal and corrupt.
After the arrest of Anakpawis party-list Representative Crispin Beltran in Bulacan last Saturday, police operatives also tried to capture Ocampo at the Sulo Hotel in Quezon City where he had attended a press conference of the minority. The militant congressman however managed to elude arrest.
Ocampo's colleagues in the Bayan Muna party-list organization also evaded arrest by taking other hotel exits and thereafter boarded other vehicles. (DBP/Sunnex)
(February 27, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
|
