Leasehold farmers have increased by more than 100% since 1988

On the military’s motion questioning the court’s ruling releasing security guard portrayed as top rebel leader and asking for his rearrest: Heartless

By National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers

The military and police officers’ “Urgent Motion for Reconsideration and for Order of Re-Arrest” of our client Rolly Panesa is not only a desperate act but is simply heartless.

Private security guard Panesa was portrayed by the military and police as a supposed ranking leader of the New People’s Army in order to fetch a multimillion bounty of P5.8M despite overwhelming evidence that he is not Benjamin Mendoza. After almost a year of unjust incarceration, the Court of Appeals eventually saw the lies and inconsistencies of the military’s professional witnesses and finally ordered his immediate release last August.

This latest Motion is simply untenable. In our Comment filed yesterday, we asserted that there is no legal or factual basis to reconsider the August 27, 2013 Decision since the same is fully in accordance with law, jurisprudence and the evidence. It is plain recycled hogwash aimed at saving face for a high-profile bungled money-making racket.

To start with, why would the military and police now question the jurisdiction and authority of the court to determine the identity of Panesa – an issue intrinsically decisive of the legality of his arrest and detention for which the remedy of habeas corpus was intended as an extraordinary remedy to afford a speedy and effectual relief to persons who are illegally detained – when they have actively and assiduously participated the proceedings through their lawyers who fought tooth and nail to keep him? They are simply estopped and cannot have their cake and eat it too.

The subject Decision cannot be more clear, categorical and unequivocal, both legally and grammatically, when it said that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is hereby issued immediately and that the Jail Warden is commanded to forthwith execute the writ for our client’s discharge from confinement and to release him.

It would not be amiss to point out certain crucial points in this tragedy to put all these in the proper perspective. This is actually and in reality not a case of “mistaken identity.” The respondents-movants, shamelessly aided by their unscrupulous lawyers who wittingly or unwittingly have tinkered with the life of an innocent ordinary security guard who did not know what hit him, have actually simulated the arrest to justify a wrongful and unjust detention.

The only motivation of such callous injustice is the handsome bounty (Php5.8 Million pesos) over the head of one Benjamin Mendoza who is allegedly a ranking rebel leader and the unworthy brownie points that come along with it in the process. Panesa is not the first victim of such money-making scheme. That it is covered by a dangerous “secret bounty list” issued by the Department of Defense and Department of Interior and Local Government in a Memorandum dated November 2012 simply institutionalizes this injustice.

Finally, is it not plainly stretching credulity or credence that a supposedly wanted high-ranking rebel leader like Panesa – who so naturally comported, deported and proven himself in and out of court as nowhere remotely close to being such – would personally and publicly file and pursue immediately after his release criminal countercharges for torture and other crimes against his captors and their handlers and errand boys?

Would it not have been inordinately convenient and easier for him to have just run posthaste back to the “mountains” on the one hand if he were indeed a rebel leader as he is being portrayed by respondents-movants or that he could just have “moved on” and lived a quiet life and charge all these to (sad) experience on the other hand if his rights, liberty and dignity were not trampled upon with impunity?

References:

Edre U. Olalia
National Secretary General
+639175113373

Ephraim Cortez
Assistant secretary general for Legal Services
+639175465798

By KARAPATAN

The arrest and illegal detention of a University of the Philippines professor in Cateel, Davao Oriental by the 67th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army is yet another blow on the typhoon Pablo victims’ self-help rehabilitation efforts.

“To throw Prof. Kim Gargar in jail on trumped up charges because he wanted to help the Pablo victims in rehabilitating and developing their communities is not only violating his rights but is also injustice to the communities he is assisting. Prof. Gargar should be immediately released,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.

“It is disgusting enough that the BS Aquino government failed to provide support for the typhoon victims. But it is more detestable that the government and its armed forces’ militarist efforts to prevent the people, those who were devastated by the typhoon and those who support them, from taking up the initiative to help themselves and better their situation,” she said.

Prof. Gargar, according to his organization Agham, opted to be temporarily seconded to Panalipdan-Southern Mindanao to directly help in the efforts to restore the communities. When he joined a humanitarian mission to the Pablo-devastated areas in April this year, Prof. Gargar saw government’s inaction and neglect amid massive destruction, and the need to support the people in the rehabilitation work.

Prior to Prof. Gargar’s arrest and detention, Cristina Jose, a barangay councilor in Bagangga, Davao Oriental, and leader of Barug Katawhan (People Stand Up) was killed on 4 March. Jose was one of the leaders of the typhoon Pablo victims who demanded the release of relief goods from the warehouse of the Department of Social Work and Development (DSWD), saying they were discriminated against by the government agency because of the military’s red tagging.

Jose was shot, by three men aboard a motorcycle, on the left side of her back, with the bullet exiting through her right breast.

Elements of the 67th Infantry Battalion — the same military unit responsible for Prof. Gargar’s arrest — had branded Jose as “kagawad ng mga NPA” (the New People’s Army’s councilor). Jose received threats prior to her death. Jose was among those who assisted Karapatan to investigate cases of human rights violations after the 67th IBPA conducted military operations in Jose’s community in January 2013.

In July, members of an international solidarity mission mostly from the United States, who visited the communities hit by typhoon Pablo were “appalled that they saw more soldiers than rehabilitated homes.” They also experienced first-hand military harassment when in less than five minutes upon their arrival, military assets were already taking their photos.

“The illegal arrest and detention of Prof. Kim Gargar, justified by red tagging, is yet another desperate move by the BS Aquino government to suppress the people’s collective action towards meaningful change,” Palabay said.

Karapatan calls for the immediate release of Prof. Kim Gargar and the immediate pull-out of military and paramilitary units in civilian communities as it warned of “more indiscriminate attacks against the people with less than three months left before Oplan Bayanihan’s deadline, and with the people becoming dissatisfied with government due to massive corruption.”

Reference:
Cristina “Tinay” Palabay
Secretary General
+63917-3162831

Angge Santos
Media Liaison
+63918-9790580

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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
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Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin corner Matatag Sts., Central District
Diliman, Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.