Tuesday, July 04, 2006
President faces 5th impeachment case
MANILA -- The list of complainants in the impeachment move against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gets longer and another case is in the offing.
Another Roman Catholic priest along with some human rights victims and their families plan to file a fifth impeachment complaint before the House of Representatives against the President when Arroyo delivers her State of the Nation Address at the opening of the Third Regular Session of the 13th Congress on July 24.
The group of Fr. Rolly de Leon, a parish priest from Norzagaray, Bulacan, comprised the first batch of complainants in another impeachment complaint who will be filing another complaint against Arroyo.
De Leon is not the first member of the Catholic Church who joined the impeachment bandwagon. Last week, Caloocan City Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez filed one of the four complaints against President Arroyo after the yearlong prohibition against the filing of an impeachment case against her ended.
In a press conference held after the complainants swore before lawyer Neri Colmenares of the Counsels for Defense of Liberties (Codal), de Leon said they hold the President liable for the many cases of human rights violations committed by authorities against civilians all over the country.
De Leon, a noted human rights advocate in Bulacan, said there is a pattern that would show that the cases of human rights abuse are being perpetrated by the military.
"(Human rights violations) are not only isolated but laganap sa buong bansa (widespread in the country," he added.
Erlinda Cadapan of Hagonoy, Bulacan, one of the complainants also, is the mother of Shirlyn, 29, who was allegedly abducted by the military last June 26 along with Karen Empeño, 23, a fourth year student at the University of the Philippines (UP)-Diliman taking up social service.
Cadapan claimed she has "concrete evidence" to prove that subordinates of Colonel Rogelio Boac "abducted" her daughter and Empeño from the house of another complainant, who requested the media to withhold his identity for the for fear that the military might get back at him.
The complainant who witnessed the abduction of Shirlyn and Karen said the abductors returned to his house on June 27 and took the 53-year-old Manuel Meriño, a member of the militant Alyansang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.
Cadapan said her daughter and two others remained missing but the military continues to deny that they are in its custody. She said they are filing a writ of habeas corpus before the court to compel the military to release the three.
Harris Vida, secretary-general of the party-list group Bayan Muna in Camarines Sur, who is also among the complainants, alleged that soldiers from the 42nd Infantry Battalion of the 9th Infantry Division based in the Bicol Region killed his brother after they attacked their house on December 3, 2005.
Last April 6, Vida said the military indiscriminately fired at them while they were holding a rally in Naga City, severely wounding Nick Briones, a leader of the National Federation of Sugar Workers.
Briones, also a complainant, showed reporters the six gunshot wounds he sustained in that incident.
De Leon said since the start of 2006, there are already 35 cases of human rights violations in Bulacan alone.
The priest said he himself is receiving death threats. He recalled that in October last year; three mails were sent to him each containing one armalite bullet.
De Leon said he could only surmise that the death threats came from the military because Major General Jovito Palparan, Army commander of the 7th Infantry Battalion, earlier identified him as a member of the New People's Army. (DBP/Sunnex)
(July 4, 2006 issue)
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