ARRESTED 'MORONG 43' PRESENTED BEFORE
COURT / IRC TO CHECK SITUATION
[PHOTO
AT LEFT - One of the 43 health workers suspected of being communist rebels by
the military raises a clenched fist as she is escorted to the Court of Appeals
for presentation yesterday. EDD GUMBAN]
MANILA, FEBRUARY 17, 2010 (STAR) The 43 health workers who were arrested on suspicion of being communist rebels were presented before the Court of Appeals (CA) yesterday in a habeas corpus hearing.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) complied with the Court order and then sought the dismissal of the habeas corpus petition filed by relatives of the health workers, arguing that the arrests conducted last Feb. 6 were lawful.
In a 17-page petition filed last Feb. 9, relatives of the workers asked the High Court to issue a writ of habeas corpus and order the AFP and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to present the arrested health workers before the Court and eventually release them.
Through Assistant Solicitor General Renan Ramos, the AFP said the 43 were arrested for possession of several hand grenades, improvised explosive sticks and other explosive devices while allegedly holding a bomb-making workshop.
Ramos argued before the special first division of the appellate court that the petition seeking release of the health workers should be dropped since privileges under writ of habeas corpus no longer apply to detainees who are already charged in court.
“Once a person detained is duly charged in court, he may no longer question his detention through a petition for issuance of a writ of habeas corpus. His remedy would be to quash the information and/or warrant of arrested duly issued,” he explained, citing Section 4 Rule 102 of the Rules of Court.
With this argument, Ramos asked the CA division chaired by Acting Presiding Justice Portia Hormachuelos to terminate the proceedings since the AFP has already complied with the order of the High Court to present the detainees and justify their detention.
But the head counsel for relatives of the detainees, lawyer Romeo Capulong, immediately contested the position of the government counsel and insisted that the arrests of the 43 persons were illegal.
He presented before the appeals court one of the arrested doctors, Alexis Montes, who testified that they were denied constitutional rights, including right to counsel, and subjected to torture.
Montes said he has been held in solitary confinement and was “pushed” by the interrogator whenever the latter did not like his answers.
Capulong argued that the CA, in resolving the habeas corpus petition, should look at every phase and aspect of the arrests, citing a Supreme Court ruling in Umil vs. Ramos.
The government counsel objected and said these issues and evidence should be tackled in trial court and not in the CA.
But Justice Hormachuelos ruled that the “presentation of evidence in the (habeas corpus) case may go into the merits of the criminal case (in RTC).”
“There will be many testimonies, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we will consider all of them. You should trust us - that we know how to separate the chaff from the grain,” she said in open court.
So the court gave the petitioners until 5 p.m. Wednesday to submit affidavits of the 42 other detainees, but it will rule on whether or not the health workers should be released.
The CA is also expected to resolve the prayer of petitioners seeking transfer of the 43 arrested workers from Camp Capinpin in Rizal to the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.
Not molested
In yesterday’s hearing, one of the detainees also denied a headline report quoting her accusing military handlers of “sexual molestation.”
“May iba’t ibang accounts kasi kami. But generally, ok naman ang pagtrato sa amin (We have different accounts, but generally we were treated okay),” Jane Balleta, 27, told reporters inside the courtroom.
She made no mention of sexual molestation but revealed that she “underwent pressure and threats.”
Sen. Pia Cayetano, chair of the Senate committee on social justice, welfare and rural development, attended the hearing and told reporters that she also saw no sign of sexual molestation of the 26 women when she visited them last week.
“None of them confirmed sexual harassment. They told me they were blindfolded and handcuffed when brought to the comfort room, and then their private parts were touched. I think there may be no personal intention to sexually harm them, but a crossing of the line against their privacy and dignity,” she explained.
She said they only experienced psychological torture by the military.
The senator said AFP officials told her that it was the first time that they handled such a big number of detained alleged NPA members.
Cayetano, who is seeking re-election in May under Nacionalista Party, said she would consider this issue in future legislative proposals.
The military dismissed as mere “propaganda” allegations that the female suspects arrested during the Morong raid were sexually molested by soldiers.
Maj. Gen. Jorge Segovia, chief of the Philippine Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, said the accusation made by Ofelia Beltran Balleta, mother of one of the detained suspects, was meant to discredit their operation against communist insurgents.
“There is no truth to the allegations that there were physical abuses, or sexual harassment. But because of the success of the operation, we expect that we will be receiving such allegations everyday,” he said in a press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo yesterday.
Segovia said male soldiers were strictly barred from having physical contact with female detainees.
“We (officers) supervised the custody (of the suspects) from the very start. All male detainees were assigned male assistants while female detainees were assigned female assistants,” he said.
Segovia said critics of the Morong raid are laying a “groundwork for future actions” intended to harm the reputation of the military. – With Sheila Crisostomo, Marvin Sy and Alexis Romero
ICRC seeks access to 'Morong 43' By Helen Flores (The Philippine Star) Updated February 17, 2010 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - The International Committee of the Red Cross has asked military officials to give ICRC representatives access to 43 health workers currently detained at a military facility in Tanay, Rizal in order to assess their situation.
“As far as we are concerned, we already filed a request (to visit them), but this is a normal procedure on our part as ICRC workers. We ask authorities for access to detainees and I have no reason to believe that such a request won’t be granted,” Jean-Daniel Tauxe, head of the ICRC delegation in the Philippines, said in a media briefing at the Crowne Plaza Galleria in Ortigas, Pasig City.
“We want to go there to check on the treatment and status of the detainees,” he added.
The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), meanwhile, slammed the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for “inconsistencies” in their statements regarding the Feb. 6 arrest of the health workers, saying the military is now “caught in its own web of lies.”
Bayan, an umbrella organization of progressive groups nationwide, said the AFP “is trying to cover up one lie after another” to justify what they consider the illegal arrest, detention, and torture of the medical personnel.
“So much inconsistencies from their statements are now showing,” noted Renato Reyes Jr., secretary-general of Bayan. “But obviously, they can no longer justify their acts. With public opposition mounting, the only justification the military can offer now is the sweeping allegation that the 43 are members of the New People’s Army (NPA).”
Reyes pointed out that the AFP claimed a week ago that the health workers were training in bomb making. Now, he said the AFP is saying that the 43 are members of a health bureau, a “super body” within the NPA.
Bayan hit 2nd Infantry Division commander Gen. Jorge Segovia for fabricating “an assembly line of lies.”
“Gen. Segovia wants us to believe the fantastic claim these trained doctors, nurses and health volunteers are actually capable of making bombs, aside from providing health care, or that making bombs and providing health care go hand in hand in the underground movement,” Reyes said.
Bayan also scoffed at the statement of Segovia that the AFP has no deliberate intention to inflict physical and psychological harm on the detainees.
“What in his military training qualifies Segovia to give a psychological evaluation of the detainees? What in his training qualifies Segovia to define what normal mental anguish is? Psychiatrist Segovia is not so he should refrain from using statements on matters where he has no competence,” Reyes asserted.
Bayan said the entire process of detaining the 43 pointed to “a deliberate and systematic intent” on the part of the captors to extract information and confessions.
“Torture is always deliberate. What happened in Camp Capinpin was deliberate and systematic,” Reyes said.
According to Bayan, volunteer psychiatrists were prevented last Saturday from examining the health workers without any clear reason from camp officials.
Breaking the insurgent’s back
But the military denied the allegations of human rights abuses, saying those were baseless and were intended to discredit the operations against insurgents.
The Philippine Army said that the arrest of the so-called Morong 43 thwarted plans by insurgents to commit atrocities during the NPA’s anniversary on March 29 and to disrupt the upcoming May elections.
“Most of the attendees at the meeting in Morong, Rizal are identified NPA members, serving as medical assistants of different guerrilla platoons in various NPA provincial committees. Others were members of NPA’s Special Operations Group, which usually carries out liquidation orders of the NPA,” the Army said, adding that the military confiscated various weapons and explosive devices, include landmines, during the raid.
“Because of this decisive tactical victory, the government forces were able to prevent a possible major attack to be perpetrated by the NPA bandits during its anniversary this March 29,” it said without elaborating on the alleged plans of the insurgents.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) deputy chief of staff for operations Maj. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan said the arrest further weakened the communist movement and is confident that the government can meet its June 30 deadline in wiping out insurgency.
“We expect their (insurgents) legal fronts to use every trick under their sleeves to discredit our efforts in getting rid of these NPAs once and for all. This arrest is definitely a big blow to the NPA movement, particularly of Southern Tagalog,” Pangilinan said in a statement.
The AFP also welcomed the statement of Jane Balleta denying that soldiers sexually molested her at the detention camp as claimed by her mother Ofelia.
In a press briefing, AFP spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said Balleta’s denial shows that the insurgents are just concocting stories to get back at the military.
Brawner stressed that Balleta was neither pressured nor threatened when she issued the denial.
“You have seen in the interviews that she was not being forced to tell the public or the media anything. She said she was not molested. She said that on her own volition,” the AFP spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Sen. Loren Legarda joined the calls of her colleagues at the Senate to investigate the arrests.
She said President Arroyo, as the commander-in-chief, should look into the alleged torture and sexual harassment by the military of the detained health workers.
“It’s time that the President look into the allegations of torture and sexual molestation of 43 health workers under custody of the military for more than a week now. After all, she’s the commander-in-chief,” Legarda said in a statement.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Malacañang will not initiate an investigation into the allegations because it seemed like mere propaganda by leftist groups.
Legarda said due process should be followed by the government in the investigation of alleged torture and sexual harassment by the military. - Katherine Adraneda, Alexis Romero, Christina Mendez