STREETWISE
Travesty of
Justice
We
believe Mr. Gonzalez when he says he knows his law and due process. The
big question is how he has used that knowledge and for what ends. As DOJ
secretary he has used it not to uphold justice but to make a travesty of
it.
BY
CAROL PAGADUAN-ARAULLO
Business World
Posted by Bulatlat
There is something terribly wrong when the
government agency tasked to uphold justice wantonly disregards the rule of
law purportedly to prosecute alleged enemies of the state.
Most of us have somehow gotten used to thieves, cheaters, liars and
murderers getting away scot-free in this God-forsaken country, especially
when they occupy exalted positions in government and society. But sending
innocent people to jail on trumped-up charges and without a modicum of due
process is a travesty that decent and upright citizens cannot take sitting
down.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) grievously violated the right to
presumption of innocence and due process of Anakpawis (Toiling Masses)
Rep. Crispin "Ka Bel" Beltran when they upheld his illegal arrest on the
basis of a 1985 warrant of arrest for a case that had already been
dismissed. Realizing their error, the authorities then immediately filed
sedition charges against him in a Quezon City trial court.
When Ka Bel was allowed by the QC court to go free on the basis of his
parliamentary immunity from minor suits, the DOJ promptly filed yet
another case, this time "conspiracy to commit rebellion" together with 1Lt
Lawrence San Juan and several John/Jane Does.
It is on the basis of this charge that Ka Bel now languishes in detention
and the so-called Batasan 5, or the 5 party-list representatives who
escaped arbitrary arrest and detention by seeking refuge as
parliamentarians in the House of Representatives (HOR), were until
recently held under virtual arrest inside the HOR premises because of the
repeated
threats by the DOJ and police to arrest them once they step outside
Congress grounds.
The six legislators were able to irrefutably disprove the testimony of a
witness claiming to have seen them meeting with Lt San Juan in Batangas on
February 20 using official records and video footages showing that they
were all in the plenary session of the Congress at that date and time.
Other pieces of evidence against Ka Bel include testimonies of soldiers
attesting to their participation in alleged meetings of the Makabayang
Kawal Pilipino (MKP). None of these testimonies name or refer to Ka Bel
nor the five other party-list representatives and are therefore irrelevant
to their cases.
Subsequently in the amended information that included the Batasan 5 and
scores of other respondents, government prosecutors attempt to build up a
case of conspiracy to commit rebellion on the basis of the fact that the
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New
People's Army (NPA), have been existing since the late sixties and their
unsubstantiated claim that the accused are all high ranking members of
said proscribed organizations.
Without offering a single shred of evidence, the accused were said to be
"willfully, unlawfully and feloniously compliment(ing) the said ongoing
rebellion thru extra-legal means and through different front organizations
of the CPP… such as but not limited to" party list groups as Bayan Muna,
Anakpawis and Gabriela Women's Party (GWP) as well as Bagong Alyansang
Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance), Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May
1st Movement), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or
Philippine Peasant Movement), GABRIELA, League of Filipino Students (LFS),
etc.
The Makati RTC judge who threw out the amended information, Judge Jenny
Lind Delorino, pointedly upbraided the DOJ prosecutors for "failure to
attach the affidavits of the complainant and its witnesses, along with
other copies of the evidence." She ruled that this is "a fatal defect
that warrants the Court's denying admission of the Amended Information".
In a fit of pique as well as in a most deliberate attempt to preempt the
issuance of a favorable court ruling on the motion of Ka Bel's lawyers
that the case against him be dismissed for lack of probable cause, the DOJ
has moved for the inhibition of Judge Delorino. The DOJ accuses her of
lack of impartiality simply because she refused to dance to the tune of
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez and opted to follow the rules of court to
protect and uphold the substantive rights of the accused.
Mr. Gonzalez's taunt that they it would be better for the Batasan 5 to
"go back to the mountains" after they successfully left the HOR premises
in assertion of their democratic rights is a malicious attempt to further
condemn these progressive legislators as guilty by association with
avowedly revolutionary groups. It is also an unwitting admission that
the DOJ/PNP/AFP do not have the evidence, the just grounds, and whatever
it takes to successfully and judiciously prosecute Ka Bel et al.
If rebellion thrives on or is rooted in social iniquity and injustice,
then Mr. Gonzalez is pouring gasoline into the fire, what with the illegal
and highly irregular manner by which he is prosecuting alleged rebels.
Mr. Gonzalez is resorting to the dirtiest of tricks to throw innocent
people to jail. He willfully breaks the law including the Constitution
itself in order to suppress dissent despite recent Supreme Court ruling on
Proclamation No. 1017 and its clear and unequivocal warnings against
tyranny and dictatorial rule.
We believe Mr. Gonzalez when he says he knows his law and due process. The
big question is how he has used that knowledge and for what ends. As DOJ
secretary he has used it not to uphold justice but to make a travesty of
it.
The evident rush to throw the Batasan 6, mass leaders of people's
organizations and other anti-Arroyo personalities behind bars is not much
of a mystery. It is not difficult to see the direct connection to
Malacañang’s frenzied but failing efforts to preempt the
resurgent anti-Arroyo mass movement and the broad political front,
including Congress and the anti-Charter change movement, that is moving to
thwart President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's desperate attempts to hold on
to power. Business World / Posted by Bulatlat
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