party list groups Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela for allegedly
ordering the killing of their husbands but official police reports say
otherwise.
An official police report on the killing of Carlito Bayudang, husband
of complainant Isebelita Bayudang, indicate that her husband's killing
was due to a land dispute. In fact, the 2004 report, signed by Police
Chief Inspector Welmer Carillo, cites Isabelita as saying her husband
was killed by suspected hitmen hired by the owners of a piece of land
being claimed by her husband's group.
"Nowhere in the police records did Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela or
any of its representatives or members ever figure in the Bayudang
killing. The sudden involvement of Bayan Muna in 2007 is a mere
afterthought, concocted more than three years after the killing in
time for the election period," says Bayan Muna legal counsel Neri
Colmenares.
Meanwhile, police reports also belie the claim of self-confessed
killer Julie Sinohin that he killed a certain Jimmy Peralta on orders
of Representatives Satur Ocampo, Liza Maza, Rafael Mariano and Teddy
Casiño. Official police records, inadvertently submitted by the widows
themselves, show that Peralta died from a traffic accident when his
motorcycle accidentally hit a pedestrian, causing him to lose control
and hit an oncoming vehicle.
The same self-confessed killer, Sinohin, claims to have killed Danilo
Felipe, wife of complainant Medelyn Felipe, allegedly on orders of the
four party list representatives.
However, as with the Bayudang and Peralta killings, no party list
group or representative ever figured in official police records of the
Felipe murder until lately.
"Bayan Muna will cite official police reports, among others, to prove
that neither the party nor its congressional representatives had
anything to do with the deaths of these three men and that such
allegations were just concocted for partisan political objectives,"
said Colmenares.
Yesterday, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño filed charges of perjury and
libel against Bayudang, Felipe, Peralta and Sinohin at the Manila
fiscal's office. An earlier civil suit against the four was filed at
the Quezon City regional trial court by Rep. Ocampo.
According to Casiño, "the very allegation of the petitioners that in
1998 Bayan Muna ordered a stop to Akbayan campaigners in Bongabon,
Nueva Ecija is an obvious lie. Our party only joined the partylist
elections in 2001 and did not have any reason to campaign for votes in
1998."
Colmenares said that the complainants and their witnesses will surely
crack under cross-examination, the reason why the complainants
recently asked the COMELEC not to conduct hearings but instead decide
the issue on the basis of written pleadings only. Because their
allegation against the party list groups were fabricated, they are
bound expose themselves and their handlers, and to betray the people
who ordered them to publics libelous and perjured statements against
us."
"The real parties of interest here are not Bayudang and Felipe. They
are merely marionettes of General Hermogenes Esperon and National
Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales who use foul means to discredit us
and to stop our march to victory," said Casiño. "These shady
characters are behind the trumped up charges against us."
Bayan Muna is asking the Commission on Elections to junk what it calls
a "nuisance disqualification case that is based on perjured
statements, ridiculous allegations and outright fabrications."
"This case should be immediately dismissed just like the previous
disqualification cases against Bayan Muna in 2001 and 2004, which were
resoundingly quashed by the Supreme Court and the Comelec
respectively" he said. ###
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