PIMENTEL URGED ESPERON TO RECONSIDER ORDER TO
COURT-MARTIAL OFFICERS

MANILA, NOVEMBER 22, 2006 (STAR) By Christina Mendez -

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. urged yesterday
Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon to reconsider his
order to court-martial several senior military officers accused of
involvement in a failed coup last Feb. 24.

"It is a sign of a military mind in action, meaning to say it is very
authoritarian in its decision-making so that no matter what a duly
constituted review panel has found out in the matter of investigating
General Miranda, et al, (it) is no deterrent to a predetermined
course of action by the AFP chief-of-staff," he said.

Pimentel said Esperon’s disregard of the Judge Advocate General’s
Office’s (JAGO) recommendation to dismiss the charges against
the military officers led by former Marine commandant
Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda would create the impression that
they are being persecuted.

Esperon’s action will "stoke the fires of discontent" in the military
ranks, he added.

This "kind of authoritarianism" being applied in handling the case
against the alleged mutineers "is not good for the rule of law," Pimentel
said.

Within five days the special general court martial will be ready
to try the 30 Scout Ranger and Marine officers headed by Miranda
and former Army Scout Rangers chief Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim.

Speaking before attending a forum of the Philippine Constitution
Association at the Manila Hotel, Esperon said yesterday he is firm in his
decision to court-martial Miranda, his Philippine Military Academy
classmate, and Lim, one of his trusted officers.

"It’s my prerogative," he said in response to questions whether he
overruled the recommendation of the AFP’s Pre-Trial Investigation panel to
dismiss the coup d’etat charges against the accused military officers.

"In fact, I’m looking at five days from now (when) we will probably be
convening already the general court-martial."

Esperon said he was just awaiting the recommendation from the AFP deputy
chief of staff, who would choose the senior officers that would sit in the
five-member court martial.

Esperon said upon review of the findings of a JAGO pre-trial
investigation (PTI) panel headed by Col. Al Perreras, referred the matter
to his staff judge advocate, Col. Pedro Herrera Davila for further study
and for legal advise.

"If I have indeed not approved all of their recommendations, that is my
prerogative as the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines,"
he said.

Esperon did not say if the JAGO report to him recommended the dropping
of mutiny charges against the accused military officers.

"I will not tell you the contents," he said.

"Suffice it to say that they are my references, whatever are their
contents, they served as my references in arriving at my decisions.

"I must tell you that the PTI report is a signed report, and there is
only one copy of that original report, it is with me and I have turned
that over to the Judge Advocate General so anything that you see in the
Internet is not the PTI report."

As he ordered court-martial for 30 officers, Esperon absolved eight
others and ordered them released from detention and reinstated to full
duty status.

One of the eight officers whom Esperon absolved was Maj. Oriel Pangcog,
who was among the 18 military officers recommended by the Perreras report
to stand trial for violation of Articles of War No. 96.

Asked about Pangcog’s case, Esperon said: "As I said, the PTI report and
the PTA are my basis for arriving at my decisions. I do not have to abide
by the PTI report and by the PTA, they are my basis, I could refer to them
as my basis for my decisions."

Shortly after Esperon announced on Monday morning that 30 officers would
face court martial, an unsigned Perreras report was posted in the
Internet.

In that version, military investigators recommended the dropping of the
charges against Miranda and other accused military officers now facing
court martial for insufficiency of evidence.

Aside from Miranda, Lim, and Querubin, the other military officers
ordered court-martialed were Marine Colonels Orlando de Leon, Januario
Caringal and Armando Banez; Lieutenant Colonels Valentin Hizon, Parcon,
Romulo Gualdrap, Segumailan; Maj. Franciso Domingo Fernandez; and 1Lt.
Belinda Ferrer, Miranda’s aide de camp. — With Jaime Laude, Delon Porcalla

Sigaw claims sweet victory - By Perseus Echeminada And Cecille Suerte
Felipe The Philippine Star 11/22/2006

Despite the defeat of its Charter change petition at the Supreme Court,
advocacy group Sigaw ng Bayan claimed "sweet victory" yesterday, saying
the SC also upheld the sufficiency of Republic Act 6735 for amending the
Constitution.

Sigaw spokesman Raul Lambino said the SC ruling on their petition
turning down their motion for reconsideration with finality had achieved
their primary goal of reversing the 1997 SC ruling on the same issues.

Lambino explained the 1997 ruling involving Sen. Miriam Defensor
Santiago and the Commission on Elections tackled the adequacy of RA 6735,
or the Initiative and Referendum Act.

He said yesterday’s ruling by the High Court settled the issue of
adequacy of RA 6735 to cover the system of people’s initiative to amend
the Constitution.

The High Court had dismissed the signature gathering campaign launched
by People’s Initiative through Reform Modernization and Action (Pirma),
declaring it illegal in the absence of an enabling law from Congress.

The High Court had stated RA 6735 is inadequate to govern the people’s
initiative petition.

"That was the essence of our petition that the High Court revisit the
Santiago ruling, we claim sweet victory," Lambino said.

Lambino claimed the separate 10-5 voting of the Supreme Court upholding
the adequacy of RA 6735 practically reversed the 1997 ruling, which
declared the people’s initiative illegal.

"With the ruling the injunction against people’s initiative has been
lifted, and anytime we can again gather signatures all over the country,"
Lambino said.

Lambino admitted though the lack of time because of the preparations for
next year’s midterm elections.

He said the 6.3 signatures they have gathered will no longer be used for
the same purpose.

Lambino also admitted "technical lapses" on their part in presenting
their case before the high tribunal.

The SC has ruled the people’s initiative, as governed by RA 6735, would
be allowed only to introduce amendments to the Constitution, not revisions
like proposals to change the type of government from the presidential
system to parliamentary.

Lambino said the SC ruling would now redirect their action to support
the constituent assembly (con-ass) move being initiated at the House of
Representatives to amend the Charter.

He said that if the con-ass move will not prosper and the new set of
elected officials will not initiate any move to amend the Constitution,
Sigaw will again embark on another nationwide campaign to gather
signatures to initiate Charter change.

"The fight for Charter is not over, we will resurface and pursue our
political objectives if a new set of lawmakers will not initiate moves to
amend the 1987 Constitution," Lambino declared.

Plan B activated

Malacañang said the SC decision to junk with finality the people’s
initiative joint petition by Sigaw and Union of Local Authorities of the
Philippines (ULAP) is not the end of the road for efforts to amend the
Charter.

"This is probably all that administration allies in Congress are waiting
for so that they can now go all out for constituent assembly,"
Presidential Political Adviser Gabriel Claudio said.

"The final Supreme Court decision formally activates the con-ass mode of
changing the Constitution," he said.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said Malacañang "respects the Supreme
Court decision on people’s initiative" but "it will not stop us, however,
from our advocacy that we need fundamental reform in order to remove the
remaining stumbling block towards our competitiveness."

Bunye said Charter change efforts "has a life of its own."

"And in the end the people will have to make the decision.

We still believe it is the most important reform we have to make," he
said.

For his part, Solicitor General Eduardo Antonio Nachura welcomed the
fact that 10 justices upheld the adequacy of RA 6735.

Nachura agreed with the observation by Charter change advocates that
yesterday’s SC ruling effectively reversed the 1997 ruling.

"Now the prospects for people’s initiative are more open," Nachura said.

Nachura explained the petition of Sigaw and ULAP was dismissed, not
because of the 1997 ruling, but on their failure to comply with the basic
legal requirements for the people’s initiative petition to succeed.

He said Justice Antonio Carpio, the author of the SC ruling, was very
emphatic on the need to have "a true people’s initiative," which means the
drive to introduce amendments to the Constitution should emanate from the
people themselves and not from a group representing them.

"These are the implications of the decision and in that sense, I am
happy," Nachura said.

Getting the act together

Sen. Joker Arroyo, for his part, called on administration allies at the
House to get its act together on efforts to push for the constituent
assembly.

"It would be for the good of all that the House should act with
dispatch, one way or the other, with its move for a constituent assembly,"
Arroyo said.

"The House cannot yo-yo this case indefinitely, nor dodge this all the
time, or be divided endlessly. This is not fair to the people. It’s time
for the House leadership to bite the bullet and act, like the Supreme
Court, with finality," he added.

Sen. Franklin Drilon, however, called on Speaker Jose De Venecia Jr. and
administration allies to put Charter change initiatives to rest to bring
about some degree of stability in the political scene.

Drilon said Charter change advocates should redirect their efforts and
start preparing for the May 2007 elections.

Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. and Senate Majority Leader Francis
Pangilinan said discussions on Charter change should to take place after
the May elections.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Charter change advocates should prepare for the
reality that their efforts had been defeated.

"They should now prepare for the sad reality of the forthcoming May
elections because they will face a debacle, they’ll face a defeat in the
May 2007 elections. They should all prepare for that," he said.

Sen. Manuel Roxas II said the administration should now focus its
efforts from a lost cause of Charter change initiatives and focus on the
basic concerns of the people.

"I urge the administration and its allies to abandon the lost cause of a
hasty cha-cha in favor of a visionary agenda of meaningful and economic
reforms," he added.

Former Comelec chairman Christian Monsod, representing One Voice, the
group that primarily opposed the petition of ULAP and Sigaw, said the
government should now address the real concerns of the people instead of
focusing on Charter change initiatives.

But local officials like Manila Mayor Lito Atienza said the efforts will
still continue in Congress.

Following the SC decision, Atienza said the efforts to amend the
Constitution has shifted on the shoulders of lawmakers. -With Aurea
Calica, Marvin Sy, Evelyn Macairan

*** Starting December, News articles will be posted on a monthly basis. thank you

Unreported atrocities

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=emilJurado_nov8_2006

Every now and then, we read newspaper headlines like “Another militant killed,” or “Another activist murdered.” These reports make it seem as though there were a killing spree against militants and activists.

What makes matter worse is the propensity of media to make even the killings of religious or cleric look like a government vendetta against those critical of the administration. Recall that in spite of positive proof and evidence that an Aglipayan priest was killed by robbers, some members of the media choose to take the word of militants, activists, and other detractors of the Arroyo administration to blame the police and the military.

In the meantime, hardly anything is said or reported about atrocities committed by communist insurgents.

***

Consider these:

In the first week of this month alone, New People’s Army terrorists in Brgy. Linoan, Montevista, Compostela Valley burned a trailer truck loaded with bananas for export to Korea. Banana farmers in Southern Mindanao have been reeling from repeated NPA attacks.

A plantation owner in Panabo complained that the rebels burned his vehicles and equipment and destroyed several hectares of banana plantation. Another farmer in Paquibato district said his equipment was torched.

Jesuit priest Fr. Romeo Intengan reported that in Davao City, the NPAs chopped down more than 800 banana plants when the plantation owner refused to pay “revolutionary taxes,” resulting in a loss of P4 million and throwing some 300 workers out of jobs. He also said that in Agusan del Sur, the rebels demanded P3 million from a mayor and a lesser amount from another.

Brig. Gen. Carlos Holganza, the army battalion commander in Compostela Valley, spoke of reports that the NPA has been demanding 50 percent of the profits of businessmen in the area. It has also been extorting small amounts from poor families.

It is to be recalled that in August this year, Akbayan party-list Rep. Etta Rosales, a critic of the Arroyo administration, denounced the NPA for burning a truck delivering muscovado sugar. The vehicle was owned by Alter Trado, a cooperative organized by former rebels and members of the militant left. The torching was done for the truck owner’s refusal to pay P30 million demanded by the NPAs.

There was, of course, the NPA handiwork in Silay, Negros Occidental when some 1,000 of the 1,400 workers constructing the P3.4 billion airport in Silay City were temporarily thrown out of work after the NPA torched P30 million worth of equipment.

The last two incidents were reported because of Rosales and because of the amount of damage involved. But what about other NPA atrocities done for people’s failure to give in to extortion efforts of these gangs of thieves? What about other despicable acts?

Sadly, media tends to ignore them.

***

Many of the insurgents up there in the hills are no longer working for a communist ideology. Actually, they have transformed into bandits and gangsters.

More reprehensible than extortion and arson are the killings, tortures and other atrocities committed by bandits and gangsters calling themselves rebels. Commissioner Wilhelm Soriano himself of the Commission on Human Rights says that the NPA is responsible for some 36 percent of the human rights violations. This is most probably a very conservative figure, considering that as late as last month, authorities were discovering one killing field after another.

What is sad though is that while Human Rights Chairman Patricia Quisumbing is quick to condemn alleged violation of human rights by the police and the military, she seems to gloss over NPA atrocities. Sadder still is the propensity of Philippine media attribute these killings to government’s vendetta against activists, militants and critical journalists.

***

Two cases reported to media are those of Davao City labor organizers Luz Aniasco Laguna and her husband Merculiano; and of Kathlyn Ramos of Cabanatuan City. Ramos was a student of the Central State University in Muñoz City, Nueva Ecija, and is a member of the League of Filipino Students.

The Laguna couple was ordered by the group to go to Cebu in 1984, but chose to visit Luz’s sister in Manila on their way to a supposed new job in Mandaue. That was the last time their relatives saw them. They were suspected as government spies and were killed during the 1985 purge ordered by the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front-New People’s Army.

The couple left behind a three-year-old son when they were taken. The party made no provisions for the sustenance of the boy who was left in the care of a non-relative, who, in spite of poverty, was able to send the boy to school. Unfortunately, the boy was killed in a fraternity rumble just as he was about to graduate from college.

On the other hand, Kathlyn Ramos was a former NPA who was taken from CSU on Oct. 13, 2002, and executed several days later by five rebels, two of whom were identified as Emeterio Untalan, chairman of the communist party in Nueva Ecija, and Leopoldo Caluza, chairman of the Regional Guerrilla Unit in Central Luzon. Her remains were exhumed by a team of National Police and military personnel last Oct. 5 in Brgy. Kaliwanagan, San Jose City, in the presence of her mother.

It turned out that Kathlyn was killed because she has a relative with the military, and she was suspected of being a deep penetration agent. Her grave was located through the efforts of former rebels headed by one Gil Navarro.

It has been estimated that the NPA has killed more than 1,700 policemen, soldiers, and innocent civilians.

***

There are more horrifying stories of NPA atrocities not finding their way to newspaper headlines.

In mid-September this year, tips from former rebels led to the discovery of another killing field containing 21 skeletal remains in the mountains of San Fernando, Bukidnon. This is apart from the alleged killing fields found in Agusan del Sur, in Brgy. Taliganan in Butuan City, and in some hinterland villages in Misamis Oriental.

Early last month, former rebels led government troops in exhuming graves in Inopacan, Leyte that contained 67 bodies in burial grounds. It was believed that the NPA called this place “the garden.” Examination of the remains conducted by the National Police Crime Laboratory disclosed that the victims had been clubbed, stabbed or hacked to death. The weapons used were lead pipes, daggers, scythes and pieces of wood known in the vernacular as “dos por dos.”

The execution of Kathlyn belies the claim of the communists that the killings or purging of former rebels ended in the 1980s. There is reason to believe that the purges are still ongoing.

One is led to wonder whether the so-called political killings are not the handiwork of the communist themselves wherein they also hope to achieve another objective while stirring public anger at the government by blaming these killings on the military and the police.

***

Leaders of the CPP-NDF-NPA, including former NDF spokesman and now Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo, had admitted that the purges were indeed undertaken by the communist movement to excise the insurgents of spies they call reactionaries and deep penetration agents. It had been admitted that some 900 had already been killed. But at the rate new killing fields are being discovered, there is great probability that the number of victims could be much more.

What I find most interesting is that while Satur Ocampo and the rest of his cohorts in Congress like Crispin Beltran, Teddy Casiño, Liza Masa and others get media mileage in blaming political killings on the movement, their other three fingers point back at them.

While they are so vocal against these killings, there’s a deafening silence on worse of all, purges of their former comrades. Isn’t this very revealing?

All these make the NPA still the biggest threat to national security.

COLUMN: A THORN

MANILA, NOVEMBER 6, 2006 (STAR) SKETCHES By Ana Marie Pamintuan - There
goes one good performer and non-politician on his way out of the Cabinet.

People who knew Avelino Cruz well probably saw his resignation coming
when, completely out of character, he publicly poured out his sentiments a
week ago against colleagues in the Cabinet who he said were demonizing him
following the defeat of the people’s initiative in the Supreme Court.

The uncharacteristic outburst was precipitated by a leak from a ranking
Malacañang official while President Arroyo was in China that Cruz could
become a casualty of the Supreme Court ruling.

Cruz was still the mild-mannered defense chief throughout our subsequent
chats, but he had the air of someone who was fed up and ready to undertake
a kamikaze maneuver.

It took another week before he finally did it.

As of last night the word from Malacañang was that the President had not
yet acted on Cruz’s tersely worded letter of irrevocable resignation. But
I’m sure Cruz knows the meaning of "irrevocable."

It was notable during our chats that he never raised any beef against
the President, carefully limiting his criticism to his Cabinet colleagues.

Yesterday he told me that his parting with the President after a
45-minute heart-to-heart talk at Malacañang’s Music Room was "amicable."

He also described as mere "discussions" rather than "disagreements" his
conversations with the President over many issues.

Cruz remembers the "discussions" starting sometime in December last
year, and the key issues at the time had nothing to do with the people’s
initiative, he said.

"I’ve been in the government for six years," he told me yesterday. "I
felt it was time to go."

* * *

He had known Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo since her days as a senator, but
that doesn’t really count for much in a land where political expediency
often takes precedence over friendships or sound legal advice.

A prominent individual who sympathized with the opposition in efforts to
oust the President last year told me at the time that Cruz had declined
invitations to join the so-called Hyatt 10 in leaving the administration
at the height of the vote-rigging controversy.

Cruz does not discuss that chapter in his official life. Yesterday he
also declined to give details of his "discussions" with the President over
the past months, although he conceded that he had opposed the people’s
initiative from the start.

He would only say that his outburst the other weekend over the people’s
initiative did not trigger his irrevocable resignation. He came out in the
open last week, he said, merely "to set the record straight."

Though he would not give details, one can surmise that the "discussions"
were related to several moves with legal implications made by Malacañang
since last year — most of which, it must be noted, were later thumbed down
by the Supreme Court.

The "discussions" were also likely related to Cruz’s efforts to
implement the Philippine Defense Reform or PDR program and create a
professional military that is insulated from politics.

The PDR is Cruz’s biggest concern as he prepares to bow out of the
Department of National Defense (DND).

"Hopefully it will continue," he told me. "I will submit an
accomplishment report (to the President) and a proposal for the way
forward."

* * *

The progress of those reforms despite great odds will be a solid legacy
of Cruz as he leaves the DND.

Politics continues to exert an inordinate amount of influence in the
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), especially in the selection of top
officers for key positions. But many difficult reforms have been carried
out since Cruz took over the DND in 2004, although he would not want to
take credit for these.

He has managed to implement reforms proposed by the commission that was
formed after the Oakwood mutiny — proposals that probably earned him
enemies in politics.

Several members of that commission headed by former Supreme Court
Justice Florentino Feliciano are pleasantly surprised that their
suggestions, including those that could be politically risky for the
administration, are actually being carried out.

Among the notable ones is the drastic simplification of bidding
procedures and requirements to cut red tape and plug opportunities for
corruption in defense and military supply procurements.

In his two years as defense chief, Cruz had tried to drum into the heads
of AFP commanders the military’s proper role in a democracy, and that
staging a coup d’etat is not the answer to their grievances.

He also echoed the call of a succession of AFP chiefs for politicians to
do their part in de-politicizing the military and creating a professional
army.

To augment AFP battalions and improve the capabilities of the military,
he pulled out all military personnel serving as bodyguards of everyone
except the President and those in the line of succession in case the Chief
Executive is incapacitated.

Mindful of the unresolved vote-rigging scandal implicating top military
officers, he also pulled out military personnel from election duties
except in conflict areas such as Sulu and in cases of emergencies.

This is starting to sound like an obit, so if you want to know what
other reforms could quickly be reversed upon Cruz’s departure, you can ask
the groups supporting those reforms.

* * *

This week, apart from preparing his accomplishment report on the PDR,
Cruz is also preparing for a long vacation after Nov. 30.

He has no immediate plans of returning to his law practice, he said.

His involvement in the law firm that he founded together with Arthur
"Pancho" Villaraza and Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, author of the SC
ruling against the people’s initiative, precipitated the latest Cabinet
intrigue against Cruz.

Now he wants to stay away from the snake pit.

"Para akong nabunutan ng tinik," he told me — it’s as if a thorn in his
flesh has been taken out.



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