Sunday, May 07, 2006
Batasan 5 to leave House despite threats of arrest
MANILA -- Five left-wing legislators holed up in the House of Representatives building for more than two months to avoid arrest on rebellion charges said Saturday they will leave the House's protective custody after a court dropped the charges.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales warned, however, that the opposition lawmakers will be arrested if they step out of the building.
"On Monday, May 8, we will leave, all five of us, the premises of the (House)," Satur Ocampo, Rafael Mariano, Liza Maza, Teodoro Casino and Joel Virador said in a joint statement.
"We shall assert our freedom and our rights, both as legislators backed by the mandate of the people and as citizens, specifically against the political persecution of the Arroyo government," they added. "In the same breath, we assert our innocence of the spurious charge of rebellion against us and some of our colleges in the democratic mass movement."
On Thursday, the Makati Regional Trial Court dismissed rebellion charges against 49 people, including the five lawmakers, another left-wing lawmaker under hospital detention, a former senator, military officers and communist guerrilla leaders who allegedly conspired to carry out a failed coup against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in February.
Arroyo declared a weeklong state of emergency in February to quash the alleged coup.
Police carried out a string of arrests without warrants, which the Supreme Court rebuked.
Gonzales on Friday ordered prosecutors to file an appeal and a petition for Judge Jenny Lind Delorino to recuse herself from the case, which he said she had prejudged in haste.
Gonzales said Delorino's court does not yet have jurisdiction over the lawmakers because they have not yet been arraigned. Senior State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco also said the court's decision was not yet final.
"They can still be arrested if they go out of the House of Representatives," Gonzales said, adding that the lawmakers "only signed a waiver of arrest so they recognize that they are under arrest."
In her resolution, Delorino dropped the charges on technicality, saying amendments filed by prosecutors to the original rebellion complaint against detained Representative Crispin Beltran and army First Lt. Lawrence San Juan added 47 new respondents.
She said the case - which traces acts of some of the respondents from as far back as the founding of the communist party in 1968 - was new and could not supplant the original. (AP/Sunnex)
(May 7, 2006 issue)
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