Former Makabayan bloc lawmakers and their legal counsels slammed a regional trial court in Nueva Ecija for serving arrest warrants to four former party-list representatives originating from a double murder charge, saying this recent move is a classic case of political persecution against the Left.
Speaking in a press conference Friday afternoon, Atty. Rachel Pastores of the Public Interest Law Center decried the made-up charges and the subsequent warrants against former Gabriela representative and current National Anti-Poverty Commission chief Liza Maza; former Bayan Muna representatives Satur Ocampo and Teddy Casiño; and then-Anakpawis representative and dismissed agrarian reform secretary Rafael Mariano.
Sudden reversal
Palayan City Regional Trial Court Branch 40 Judge Evelyn Turla issued arrest orders against the four and several others on July 11 for allegedly conspiring to ‘liquidate’ a certain Jimmy Peralta and a Carlito Bayudang on December 2003 and May 2004, respectively.
The Nueva Ecija Provincial Prosecutor’s Office in April 2006 charged the four accused of this capital offense, along with a kidnapping and murder charge of another Danilo Felipe in February 2001.
Judge Turla earlier ruled the absence of probable cause in the charges. “From the gathering of evidence until the termination of the preliminary investigation, it appears that the state prosecutors were overly-eager to file the case and to secure a warrant of arrest of [petitioners] without bail and their consequent detention,” Turla said in the ruling.
However, instead of dismissing the charges, Turla recently reversed the ruling despite the fact that no further evidence have been augmented in the complaints.
‘Incredible, irregular story’
Atty. Pastores revealed irregularities in the accusations made by individuals who claimed to be wives of the three alleged victims.
“Ang judge [Turla] mismo nagsabi na hindi man lang sinumpaan sa public prosecutor ang statements na ginawa ng nagsampa ng complaint. Requirement iyon. How can we validate na totoo ‘yung sinasabi kung hindi man lang humarap sa prosecutor? Kaya ‘yung sinabi nila sa pulis, na ‘yung ginawang basis ng fiscal para sampahan ng kaso ang mga [akusado],” Pastores said.
(Judge [Turla] herself said that the statements were not sworn to a public prosecutor by those who filed the complaints. That is supposed to be a requirement. How can we validate that what they said were true if they did not come face to face with the prosecutor? The statements they said to the police formed the basis for the fiscal to charge the accused.)
In early 2007, Isabelita Bayudang, Madelyn Felipe, and Mayumi Peralta filed disqualification charges at the Commission on Elections against party-lists Bayan Muna, Gabriela, and Anakpawis. The three alleged the involvement of nominees Ocampo, Maza, and Mariano in the murder of their husbands with the help of ‘intelligence groups’ and a ‘liquidation squad’. The case was dismissed by the Comelec for lack of evidence.
The Nueva Ecija Provincial Prosecutor’s Office later on issued subpoenas for the Philippine National Police – Nueva Ecija Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) to investigate the accusations written in the affidavits.
Bayan Muna said there were “material gaps, ambiguous and sweeping statements, and serious inconsistencies” in the plaintiffs’ affidavits.
One inconsistency that Pastores pointed out is that in the testimonies, the four accused were said to have met at a Bayan Muna meeting in 1998 when the party list was only formed two years later.
The prosecutors’ panel also did not yield to the accused-movants’ request to file a motion for reconsideration provided under the law.
Atty. Pastores and the team of legal counsels will be seeking legal remedies and will file a motion for reconsideration before the courts.
‘Darker times ahead for the opposition’
Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes, Jr. sees the case as a double-edged struggle, in that while lawyers exhaust legal options, the key is political pressure for the Duterte administration to drop the charges against the accused.
“Ang laban, for the most part, ay political — ‘yung pressure para mag-back off at irespeto ang karapatan ng akusado. Walang bullyhan. Nasa kapangyarihan nila [ng DOJ at ng Duterte administration] na i-atras ‘yung kaso. Pero magagawa lang ito effectively kung mayroong malakas na panawagan not just from us, pero ‘yung malawak na sumama sa United People’s SONA at sabihing, ‘Hindi ‘yan mga kriminal, hindi ‘yan murderers’,” Reyes said.
(The fight, for the most part, is political — to pressure [the government] to back off and respect the rights of the accused. No bullying. It’s in their power [the DOJ’s and the Duterte administration’s] to dump their cases. But this can only be done effectively if there is a loud call not just from us, but from the many who joined the United People’s SONA and collectively we say ‘They are not criminals, they are not murderers’.)
The Makabayan Bloc coalition has also issued a statement, saying that “darker times are ahead” as attacks against groups critical of the Duterte government are increasing. “These attacks are highly condemnable and we will continue to oppose the anti-people and anti-poor policies of the Duterte administration,” representatives from the Makabayan Bloc said.
