In Jail on Trumped-Up Charges, KMU Regional Leader Pines for Freedom

Published on September 5, 2010

Three years and four months after the arrest of KMU National Council member and regional coordinator of Anakpawis Partylist Vincent ‘Bebot’ Borja, the Regional Trial Court will hear on Monday, Sept. 6, only its second hearing to date. The KMU calls his arrest and the delay in the hearings as an injustice.

By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — Three years and four months since he was taken by soldiers at gunpoint based on a warrant of arrest that did not match his name, KMU National Council member and regional coordinator of Anakpawis Partylist Vincent ‘Bebot’ Borja languishes in a congested Tacloban City jail up to this day.

Workers would hold a picket in front of the Department of Justice and urge Justice Secretary Leila De Lima to help in the immediate release of the labor leader.

According to the KMU (May First Movement), Borja, 40, has now lost half his weight since he was “illegally” arrested and jailed. Imprisoned at Leyte’s provincial jail, Borja shares a detention cell with 40 to 50 other prisoners, with prison food from a meager PhP30 a day (US$0.21 per meal) budget and recorded frequent prisoner deaths due to diseases contracted in jail, like tuberculosis.

Vincent “Ka Bebot” Borja (Photo from http://freekabebot.wordpress.com/ )

Bebot Borja is charged with murder and rebellion, but the sole witness to his case has been a no-show in court hearings up to now. His legal defense team complained that for the first two years of Borja’s imprisonment no court hearings had pushed through. On his third year in prison some of the scheduled court hearings did push through but the alleged witness to his supposed crime still did not turn up.

According to Kagawasan ug Hustisya (Freedom and Justice) from the Visayas, this witness is “clearly lying as one of the persons he named as also present in the murder scene had already died months before the alleged crime.”

Despite the no-show and dubious witness, Borja’s petition for bail is still pending as the prosecutors, citing this witness’ right to appear in court, continue to oppose Borja’s bail up to now, the KMU said.

State Terrorism Against Unionism

Bebot Borja is a “victim of the US-Gloria Macapagal Arroyo regime’s war against militant trade unionism,” said the KMU in a statement posted in the “Free Ka Bebot Borja” website. Under Arroyo, some 93 labor leaders and advocates were extra-judicially killed, under the counter-insurgency program called Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL) which lumps legal progressive activists together with armed revolutionaries and considers them as “targets for neutralization.”

The labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) has been specifically targeted in OBL, being labeled as a “front organization” of the Communist Party of the Philippines / New Peoples Army. Most of the 93 extra-judicially killed from the labor sector under Arroyo were KMU leaders, organizers and activists. Many have also reportedly fallen victim to enforced disappearances.

Trade union leaders and organizers, such as Bebot Borja, also become prey to what the KMU describes as “legal offensives.” This meant filing of “trumped-up charges” and imprisoning KMU leaders, activists, even lawyers, as a result. Under this legal offensive, the cases filed against activists are ultimately proven to be unsubstantiated, but the activists have already suffered imprisonment and lost a huge chunk of time that they could have spent in the activities of their organizations.

“Our comrade (Borja) has suffered for so long over what is clearly a fabricated case. He remains a victim of the campaign of political harassment waged by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her military officials,” Ustarez said.

The labor center is now urging President Benigno Aquino III to correct the injustices committed by the previous administration. “Even before he took oath as president, we have been asking Pres. Aquino to set Ka Bebot free,” added Ustarez.

On Monday (September 6), “the Ormoc trial court would have its second hearing on the case after numerous delays for unjustified reasons,” the KMU said. They add that Borja’s continued imprisonment is “unacceptable after more than three years,” and despite promises of “change” by the new administration.

“Workers hope for a change of attitude of the government with new DOJ Secretary Leila De Lima,” said Elmer Labog, KMU chairman.

Bebot Borja is a husband and a father of four. He became a trade union leader while working at Leyte “A” Geothermal Power Plant, a government-owned power-generation company that was later privatized and acquired by the Lopezes. Borja was dismissed from his job in early 2000 for having participated in a strike that was later declared as illegal by the Department of Labor and Employment and broken up by the military. Borja opted to become a full-time union organizer after that. (Bulatlat.com)