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Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Prelate nixes appointment to slay probe commission
MANILA -- Batanes Bishop Camilo Gregorio, one of the six individuals chosen by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to compose a body that would investigate political killings in the country, turned down the offer Tuesday.
Gregorio said the job was beyond his duty as a member of the clergy.
"After much prayer and consultation, I have decided to decline the nomination as member of the Melo Commission," said Gregorio in a text message sent to reporters.
President Arroyo last Monday announced the creation of the commission that will look into extra-judicial killings and named the prelate as one of its members.
The other members are National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Nestor Mantaring, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, and University of the Philippines (UP) regent Nelia Gonzales.
Former Supreme Court (SC) justice Jose Melo will head the commission, while lawyer Rogelio Vinluan will serve as the group's senior counsel.
Gregorio said he has to be relieved as a clergyman first before he would accept the position in the commission. He said he has other important obligations in his diocese and would have no time to attend the sessions of the commission.
He said while he thanked the President for picking him to the commission, he would be more than willing to serve the country in another capacity.
Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz, in a separate interview, said he was informed of Gregorio's decision not to accept the appointment to the Melo Commission.
"Bishop Gregorio will write Malacañang Wednesday indicating herein his refusal to the offer of President Arroyo," he said.
According to him, Gregorio perhaps considered in his decision what happened to Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes, who was appointed by the Arroyo Government to the fact-finding team that looked into the Rapu-rapu mercury spill but after he had finished the investigation and recommended the closure of the Lafayette Mining Company, the Palace junked his recommendation.
"I am afraid that this (Arroyo) administration is even willing to use bishops in order to validate its agenda just as it used Bishop Bastes. Here again you have another bishop (Gregorio) to the Melo Commission who probably would again be used," he said.
He questioned the motives of the Arroyo administration in appointing another bishop to a government body when in fact they had been invoking the separation of church and state.
"We bishops are accused of a violation of the law as regards the separation of the church and the state. And yet they (Arroyo government) ask bishops for a dialogue, they ask bishops to be members of a commission. Why will they get a bishop for political issue, I thought there's separation of the church and the state?" said Cruz.
The communist-led National Democratic Front (NDF) also criticized the commission formed by President Arroyo, calling it as a "whitewashing machine" of the government.
NDF human rights committee chairman Fidel Agcaoili said the Melo Commission is composed of "long-time loyalists" of President Arroyo and of her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal.
He described Melo as "a long-time factotum of the Macapagal family since the time of the late President." He also questioned the credibility of Zuño and Mantaring, who he said are both "subalterns" of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. and "are expected to follow his (Gonzalez) rabid counter-revolutionary witch-hunting."
Agcaoili said another member of the commission, Gonzales, is a "known Arroyo loyalist." He said the UP board member was also a member of the constitutional commission that endorsed changes in the 1987 Constitution.
He said Gonzales was named to the constitutional commission "to ensure that the interest and concerns of the Arroyo regime are advanced and protected in the body."
"What seems to be the sole exception as a decorative figure is (Bishop Camilo) Gregorio," said Agcaoili, who described the bishop as "an ultra-conservative, notorious for his antipathy towards the legal progressive movement and towards the social action programs fostered" by his predecessor Bacolod Bishop Antonio Fortich.
"He resigned from the position of bishop of the Bacolod diocese under pressure by the people for his alienation from them, his arrogance, and scandalous indiscretions," he said, referring to Gregorio.
Agcaoili, who is based in The Netherlands with communist party founder Jose Ma. Sison, said the "most telling fact" about the special commission is that none of its members is known to be a defender of human rights.
"It (Melo Commission) is another vicious psy-war device to besmirch the memory of the victims and blame the revolutionary movement for the crimes, as already being maliciously done by Task Force Usig of the Philippine National Police (PNP)," said Agcaoili.
He said the creation of the special body is a desperate attempt of the President to counter the findings of different local and international human rights organizations and fact-finding missions that pointed to the government as accountable to the spate of killings. He said the Melo Commission has no objective but "to cover up and whitewash the culpability of the Arroyo regime."
But Malacañang asked administration critics to give the Melo Commission a chance to do its job first before prejudging what they could do and accomplish.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the government respects the commission and they would not want to preempt its plans or actions. He added that the commission is now organizing itself and mapping out its priorities.
"Our detractors should adopt a fair attitude and refrain from labeling a body that has not even started its work. President Arroyo is determined to get to the bottom of extra-judicial killings, stop them, and make sure human rights are constantly protected," he said.
He also expressed confidence that the commission would be able to act to uphold and further these goals.
Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr., meanwhile, said the Melo Commission would get its budget from the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) of the different agencies that they would be working with.
"I heard that they can empower the PNP or the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in order to carry out investigations. We will get those budgets from the departments which they will now task to carry out some of these activities," Andaya said.
Asked if there was a specific amount allotted to the commission, he said nothing was submitted to him yet but if ever there would be an allocation, it would be closer to P2 million, the same amount allotted to the Feliciano Commission that President Arroyo formed in 2003. The Feliciano Commission was tasked to investigate the failed Oakwood mutiny in July 2003 and the grievances of the soldiers. (MSN/VR/JMR/Sunnex)
(August 23, 2006 issue)
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