By LUIS G. JALANDONI
Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel
NDFP Negotiating Panel condemns trumped-up charges and arrest warrants
against Rep. Satur Ocampo and NDFP personnel
The NDFP Negotiating Panel condemns in the strongest terms the trumped-up charges and warrants of arrest filed by the Manila government against Representative Satur Ocampo, Prof Jose Ma. Sison, NDFP Chief Political Consultant, myself as NDFP Panel Chair, NDFP Panel Member Julieta de Lima, NDFP Political Consultant Vicente Ladlad, and NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee for Social and Economic Reforms members Rafael Baylosis and Randall Echaniz.
By LUIS G. JALANDONI
Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel
NDFP Negotiating Panel condemns trumped-up charges and arrest warrants
against Rep. Satur Ocampo and NDFP personnel
The NDFP Negotiating Panel condemns in the strongest terms the trumped-up charges and warrants of arrest filed by the Manila government against Representative Satur Ocampo, Prof Jose Ma. Sison, NDFP Chief Political Consultant, myself as NDFP Panel Chair, NDFP Panel Member Julieta de Lima, NDFP Political Consultant Vicente Ladlad, and NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee for Social and Economic Reforms members Rafael Baylosis and Randall Echaniz.
The basis of the charge and arrest warrants is the obviously perjured testimony of the military’s witness who claimed that I, Prof. Sison and Representative Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna, ordered the killing of civilians in Inopacan, Leyte in 1984, while Rep. Ocampo and Prof. Sison were in maximum security prisons of the Marcos dictatorship and while I was in Europe as a political refugee.
The ongoing manhunt for Rep. Ocampo, Vicente Ladlad and other personnel involved in GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, and the PNP call on Interpol to place Prof. Sison, me and others on the Interpol’s “red notices”, shows the viciousness of the Arroyo regime which vainly tries to cover-up its accountability for the more than 830 extrajudicial killings, more than 200 involuntary disappearances, and for which it has drawn intense national and international condemnation. These malicious actions of the Arroyo regime are furthermore flagrant violations of the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). The false charges and arrest warrants against NDFP personnel involved in peace negotiations is a gross violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).
While there is no basis for the above-stated trumped-up charges and arrest warrants, there is a firm basis for holding Mrs. Gloria Arroyo, Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Esperon, and Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Calderon for the extrajudicial killings which, in the words of UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston, “are convincingly attributed to the AFP”.
Under the universally recognized and applicable principle of command responsibility, Mrs. Gloria Arroyo, as Commander-in-Chief of the AFP and the PNP, is accountable for these extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. We are filing formal complaints against her and Generals Esperon, Calderon, retired Gen. Palparan and other AFP and PNP officers for the enforced disappearances of NDFP Consultants Rogelio Calubad and his son Gabriel, Prudencio Calubid, his wife Celine Palma and their associates, Gloria Soco, Ariel Beloy and Antonio Lacno, and NDFP Personnel Leopoldo Ancheta and Philip Limjoco. Mr. Lacno was able to escape and gave written testimony of the enforced disappearance and the torture inflicted on them.
The appropriate United Nations special bodies and the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal which hold its Second Session on the Philippines in The Hague on March 21-25, 2007, will be presented with compelling evidence and witnesses to prove the gross and systematic human rights violations of Ms. Arroyo and her accomplices.
Like the dictator Marcos, Gloria Arroyo and her generals and other accomplices may have the illusion of brazenly trampling on the rights of the Filipino people, but they should study and learn the lessons of history. The Filipino people will fight and resist the fascist regime of Arroyo. The sovereign Filipino people will prevail.
