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Saturday, March 10, 2007
Police file new case v. communist group founder
MANILA -- Police on Friday filed additional murder and robbery charges against Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison for the killing of a police officer in Masbate last week.
Bicol Regional Police Office spokesman Superintendent Eliciar Bron said Masbate Investigative Task Group investigators filed the new charges before the Masbate provincial prosecutor's office.
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Charged along with Sison for the killing of Senior Inspector Alberto Montecalvo, Pio V. Corpuz town police chief, in Masbate last week were New People's Army (NPA) personalities, said Bron.
Among those charged with murder and robbery before the Masbate Provincial Prosecutor's Office were Rogelio Suson, Dindo Monsato alias Ka Buddy, and several John Does who were identified in the rogues' gallery and intelligence files of the police, Bron said.
Bron said police investigators were later able to secure witnesses to the killing.
He said Sison had been charged with the murder because "he has been waging a communist insurgency for decades that has left widows and orphans" while he enjoys "all the perks of life" in The Netherlands.
At Malacañang, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Antonio Apostol said the administration had nothing to do with the warrants of arrest issued against Ocampo, Sison, and other communist movement officials and members.
Apostol said the issuance of the warrant also had nothing to do with the recent signing into law of the Human Security Act of 2007 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
He said the murder charges against Ocampo and his group had long been filed, when there was no anti-terrorism law yet.
Some legislators, meanwhile, condemned the arrest warrant for Bayan Muna party-list Representative Satur Ocampo, warning that this would send a wrong signal and will not help government efforts to reconcile with its foes.
Senator Joker Arroyo, who is seeking reelection, said "there is something grievously wrong" with order for the arrest of Ocampo and others and even the continued detention of party-list Representative Crispin Beltran of Anakpawis for crimes allegedly committed before the People Power revolt in 1986 or during the Martial Law years.
Ocampo has gone into hiding but said he would surface soon to face the multiple murder charges filed against him and Sison for the purge of deep penetration agents of the military in the 1980s.
Senator Ralph Recto, for his part, said the murder charges taken against the backdrop of unsolved killings of activists might trigger a "better Red than dead" mentality among activists.
"If we don't give them space and push them against the wall, they will go underground in droves and apply their talents in energizing their movement," he said.
Recto urged Ocampo "to give our legal system, though flawed, one last chance before considering other career options."
Senate President Manuel Villar reminded the military that Ocampo is a duly-elected public official under the law and must be accorded due respect.
A church group also condemned the warrant of arrest issued against Ocampo for charges that they said were "all fabricated."
The Promotion of Church People's Response (PCPR) said the multiple murder charges filed against Ocampo "are foul since the real murderers are those in the halls of power who are afraid of Bayan Muna's politics of change." (VR/CPB/MSN/JMR/Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Zamboanga. (March 10, 2007 issue)
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