Anakpawis lawmakers score administration proposal to regulate surveys

MANILA -- Anakpawis Representatives Crispin Beltran and Rafael Mariano
today said that there was a comprehensive administration public
campaign to cast doubt on pre-election surveys. They said that that
the campaign was meant to convince the voting populace that surveys we
are just paid political propaganda and are essentially useless.

The Anakpawis lawmakers said that the campaign codenamed Oplan Havana
is primarily a campaign launched via via mass media to expose the
supposed inconsistencies of recent survey results carried out by SWS
and Pulse Asia. Anakpawis was given a copy of the guidelines of Oplan
Havana by an ally.

"Oplan Havana is a plot hatched by certain candidates in Team Unity
who are trailing badly in the surveys. It aims to discredit the
electoral surveys because obviously, these surveys indicate that the
Team Unity candidates are at the losing end against the candidates of
the Genuine Opposition. The administration cannot deny that the
electoral surveys have the effect of further setting a trend in the
preferences of the voting public," they said. "The administration is
just sour graping because they are not benefitting any from these
independent surveys."

Beltran said that accrording to sources, Oplan Havana aims to create
a scenario wherein Filipinos will mistrust surveys and make them
believe that thse surveys are lacking in credibility and are just
empty political propaganda. The administration and Team Unity
candidates intent to infuse millions of pesos in a separate media
bliztkreig to discredit the surveys.

"Already staunch Malacañang defender Davao Rep. Prospero Nograles is
calling for the regulation of electoral surveys. This is without doubt
because of the continued failure of the Arroyo administration's Team
Unity candidates to rate high in the surveys. If the surveys were
showing opposite results and the Team Unity candidates were rating
high, it's doubtful that the administration and its allies like Rep.
Nograles will find it a necessity to have the surveys regulated,"
Beltran said.

Mariano, in the meantime, said that having the surveys subjected to
guidelines and regulations based on Malacanang's standards was
tantamount to censorship. "This is state control at its worse – the
Arroyo administration wants to control the functions and the mandate
of the survey groups to conduct random but efficient surveys that
reflect current public sentiment. This is also an insult against the
survey groups the SWS and Pulse Asia," he said.

The Anakpawis lawmakers said that Malacanang and Team Unity's fear of
the surveys was well-founded because the administration candidates
were sorely trailing in the survey results. "But why take it out on
the survey groups? They're just the messengers. Team Unity candidates
are trailing in the surveys because they are associated with Pres.
Gloria Arroyo whose own approval ratings are negative."

Beltran will not enter any plea in sedition charge

MANILA -- Anakpawis Representative and political detainee Crispin
Beltran today said that he will not enter any plea in this afternoon's
hearing of the sedition case against him at the Quezon City Regional
Trial Court Branch 43. The said court headed by Acting Presiding Judge
Thelma de los Santos had denied Beltran 's motion to quash the
government's move to proceed with Criminal Case No. 132943 or the case
charging him with sedition.

"I will not plead to anything. I do recognize the legitimacy of the
charges against me. I was arrested based on a long-lapsed warrant; the
testimonies against me are all fabricated, and the witnesses are all
completely lacking in credibility. Let the court declare a plea on my
behalf because I will not. I have been detained for over a year on a
rebellion charge that has already been dismissed; and on the strength
of testimonies that are patently false. This is a serious miscarriage
of justice, "he said, defiant. He said that all charges against him
should be dismissed because of glaring legal technicalities and the
blatant perjury of the witnesses.

Beltran, 74, has been on a 'freedom fast' since Thursday morning as
has been subsisting solely on soda crackers and water. He embarked on
his fast in protest against his continuing incarceration as well as
against the arrest of Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo. He will be
attending this afternoon's arraignement on an essentially empty
stomach.

"The Macapagal-Arroyo government continues to deny millions of
Filipinos justice. The constantly worsening conditions of poverty,
hunger and joblessness are grave injustices that remain unresolved.
Add to these the escalating attacks against the human rights and civil
liberties of Filipinos and what we have is a criminal government. My
continuing incarceration is further proof that there is no democracy
in the Philippines against the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. The
Arroyo government is now completely utilizing and relying on
underhanded and downright dirty means to silence its critics. The
victims, however, will not be silent. We will not be silenced and
continue to expose and protest against Pres. Arroyo's burgeoning
dictatorship," he said.

The activist lawmaker and detainee said that his legal counsels led by
Public Interest Law Center (PILC) president Atty. Romeo Capulong,
Atty. Rachel Pastores and Atty. Amylyn Sato intend to file a motion
for certiorari on the sedition charges against him. "I cannot be
charged with both sedition and rebellion. The more serious crime
should absorb the lesser crime; I, however, am innocent of both
charges. I have an elected lawmaker since 2001 and done nothing but
take full advantage and use of the parliamentary arena to further the
cause of the poor and marginalized sectors which the progressive
party-lists represent," he said.

Beltran challenged Department of Justice secretary Raul Gonzales to
personally read and review all the testimonies supposedly proving
Beltran's guilt. "If there's any sense of logic, reason and justice in
Sec. Gonzales, he himself would concede that all the testimonies
against me are fabrications. Himself a lawyer, he will easily see that
all the evidence prove nothing of my supposed guilt but point towards
by innocence of the charges. All I am guilty of is actively denouncing
the abuses and corruption of the Macapagal-Arroyo presidency, and all
that is within my rights not so much as a lawmaker, but as a Filipino
living in a supposedly democratic society," he said.

In the meantime, the veteran labor leader turned legislator lauded the
decision of the Permanent People's Tribunal to declare the
Macapagal-Arroyo government guilty responsible for the extrajudicial
killings and disappearances in the country.

"The Arroyo government cannot continue to ignore the growing number of
institutions and internationalists expressing condemnation for the
worsening human rights situation in the Philippines. Pres. Arroyo's
stubborn insistence to stand by and defend the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP) and their paramilitary groups only exacerbate the
crime of sanctioning the wide-scale execution of political activists
and human rights advocates," he concluded.#

KMP to bishops on urban militarization: Follow Bishop Pabillo’s example

AFP asking COMELEC for 30-day extension to answer charges

MANILA -- The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the
ANAKPAWIS party list group called on all the bishops of the Catholic
Church to stand up for their flock and work for the immediate pull out
of the troops in their areas.

According to Ka Willy Marbella, internal deputy secretary general of
KMP and ANAKPAWIS party list nominee, "we are really glad that the
good Bishop Broderick Pabillo has already come out and voiced his
strong opposition on the urban deployment of troops. We ardently hope
that all the other bishops will follow suit to stop the military from
further harassing and terrorizing the people,"

"The auxiliary bishop of Manila, is right in getting first hand
information and going to the places were the military are deployed and
engaging them in dialogue, but as it is it seems the Armed Forces of
the Philippines (AFP) do have something to hide because they did not
even meet with the top Church official. In other areas of Metro Manila
and the whole country as well the Church should take the lead in
battling this further infringement on our rights," said Marbella.

"We have also monitored military deployments in Cebu and in the vast
country side like Cagayan Valley, Centra Luzon, Soutern Tagalog, the
Bicol region and Davao where our bailiwicks are located, the Church
leaders should also let their voices be heard and work so that the
troops would be ordered back to their barrack," added the peasant
leader.

"During the last hearing in the COMELEC regarding our complaint
against the AFP's urban military deployment and their electioneering
activities, it is almost funny that their lawyers are asking for a 30
day extension before they would reply to our charges. It would be
Election Day by then and the charges would seem to be moot and
academic. The delaying tactics of the regime is so blatant and they
really want the troops to remain up till the elections at the very
least," he said.

"With a dishonest and fascist military we need more Church leaders
like Bishop Pabillo who stands up for his flock and lend his voice to
them in fighting tyranny and repression," ended Marbella. # # #

________________________________
Need Mail bonding?
Go to the Yahoo! Mail Q&A for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users.

Arroyo will go down in history like Marcos

MANILA -- Spread the word, Gloria Arroyo and her government is guilty
of crimes against the Filipino people. She is set to go down in
history like the Dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

We, the complainants who made the appeal to the Permanent Peoples'
Tribunal to hear our charges versus Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, are happy
with the tribunal's verdict.

We are proven correct in our belief that only a body independent of
Arroyo's influence and political clout can come out with a strong
verdict unlike in the Philippines where the judiciary is subjugated by
the whims of the Executive Office and rendered useless by state
terrorism.

We are very much elated with the verdict, even if we know that it will
not directly result to the arrest of Arroyo and her supporters. But as
she is condemned by the world as a criminal and as perpetrator of
these human rights violations, for us victims, we are given hope, a
glimmer of the light of justice. Like Marcos, she has sown terror and
fear among the people, and now she will reap the condemnation of the
Filipino people and the world. This is the beginning of her regime's
end.

She and her cohorts may have prevented the truth from coming out when
she successfully blocked two impeachment trials, but they had no way
to stop the glaring evidence against her in an international opinion
court. Now, the truth is out, and the whole world will know about her
crimes: the extrajudicial killings, abductions and enforced
disappearances, massacres, illegal arrests and arbitrary detention,
attacks against the communities, attacks on peasants, workers, women
and children.

The Marcos dictatorship was also tried and found guilty by the PPT in
1980, before it was finally ousted in 1986.

We will now bring the results of the PPT to the wider public, in the
country and abroad. And we will also find more venues to bring our
cases against Arroyo, Bush and their supporters.

Our testimonies and evidences were sufficiently heard by the
international tribunal that found the Arroyo regime along with the
government of US Pres. George W. Bush guilty for violations of
political, economic and cultural rights and the people's right to
self-determination.###

PRESS STATEMENT - March 26, 2007

Reference: EVANGELINE HERNANDEZ, HUSTISYA Head Convener,
HUSTISYA, 09158562151

DEE AYROSO, Desaparecidos Coordinator,
09196083494

Arroyo guilty of crimes against humanity -- Permanent Peoples' Tribunal

Tribunal Verdict to be transmitted to the UN, ICJ and European Parliament

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – In a 13-page verdict read before about 300
people inside a church in this city March 25, the Permanent Peoples'
Tribunal (PPT) found both Philippine President Gloria M. Arroyo and
U.S. President George W. Bush, Jr. and their respective governments as
responsible for gross and systematic violations of human rights,
economic plunder and transgression of the Filipino people's
sovereignty, were.

The verdict, read at the conclusion of the five-day second session on
the Philippines by François Houtart, Session President, described the
extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, massacres, torture and
other atrocities allegedly committed by the Arroyo government as
"crimes against humanity". Such violations which the PPT said were in
no way justified as "necessary measures against terrorism", must be
stopped immediately.

In a cultural program held right after the verdict was read, Senator
Jamby Madrigal said the Tribunal's judgment will dispel the claims of
the Arroyo government that there is democracy in the Philippines. The
senator, who spoke as a resource person during the tribunal
proceedings, said that the country is now ruled by a military junta
with Mrs. Arroyo acting only as a figurehead.

The concluding part of the Tribunal took place at the Pax Christikerk
in The Hague. The Hague is the Netherlands' seat of government and the
world's center of international law. It hosts the International Court
of Justice (ICJ), the new International Criminal Court (ICC) of the
Rome Statute of 1998, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia (ICTFY) that tried Milosevic, the deposed president
of Yugoslavia for war crimes.

The Tribunal, composed of six internationally-eminent persons, also
named the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), as having "a central
role" in the atrocities, adding that the military is "a structural
component and instrument of the policy of the 'war on terror' in the
Philippines" declared by both Arroyo and Bush, Jr.

The verdict was rendered after three continuous session days that
heard the testimonies of witnesses of political killings and
abductions, expert testimonies and boxes of documents, and other
evidences to support three major charges against the two governments.
The charges were on: violations of the Filipino people's civil and
political rights; economic, political, and cultural rights; and
violations of the people's rights to national self-determination and
national liberation.

The number of victims of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines has
reached 839 this week. Hundreds of others were victims of frustrated
murders and abductions, widely believed to be perpetrated by
government security forces. This report has been confirmed by the UN
Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, involuntary or summary
executions, and by the government-created Melo Commission.

In the Tribunal, several testimonies of eyewitnesses, experts and
resource persons were heard live through tele-video conference with
Manila, with questions tossed by members of the Tribunal's jury.

Those who gave depositions and testimonies either in person or through
video hook-up included Marie Hilao-Enriquez, secretary general of
human rights alliance Karapatan; Dr. Constancio "Chandu" Claver,
victim of frustrated murder; Dr. June P. Lopez, an expert in handling
torture and trauma victims; Navy Capt. (ret.) Danilo Vizmanos; UP
Faculty Regent Prof. Roland Simbulan; Bishop Elmer Bolocon of the UCCP
and Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF); Elmer Labog, chair of Kilusang
Mayo Uno (KMU); and Danilo Ramos of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng
Pilipinas (KMP).

Senator Madrigal also appeared before the PPT as resource person on
the environment.

'Unacceptable'

The Tribunal jurors also denounced as "unacceptable" the inclusion of
the Arroyo government in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The
Philippine membership, the jurors said, undermines the credibility of
the United Nations particularly in human rights, and is "an
intolerable offense" to the victims.

Aside from Houtart, who is from Belgium and Director of the Centre
Tricontinental (Cetri), the PPT jurors included Oda Makoto (Japan),
well-known novelist and social activist; Ties Prakken (The
Netherlands), professor in criminal law Maastricht University; Oystein
Tveter (Norway), lawyer and former Director of the Karibu Foundation
and former foreign ministry official in South Africa and Zambia; Irene
Fernandez (Malaysia), lawyer, social development expert and head of
Tenaganita; and Lilia Solano (Colombia), 2005 Right Livelihood Awardee
(alternative Nobel) and Director of Project for Life and Peace.

Richard Falk (USA), professor emeritus of international law at
Princeton University and Hans Köechler (Austria), president of the
International Progress Organizations could not make it due to academic
commitments.

Houtart and Makoto were also members of the jury during the first
session on the Philippines in 1980 held in Antwerp, Belgium, which
found the Marcos dictatorship guilty for gross and systematic
violations of human rights, among others. That verdict became a major
factor in the international isolation of the Marcos dictatorship that
eventually led to its ouster six years later.

PPT General Secretary Gianni Tognoni served as moderator of the proceedings.

Houtart said that although the verdict may be legally non-binding, it
is nevertheless "morally binding". The judgment will be transmitted to
the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, the European
Parliament and various foreign governments. Tognoni said that the
transmittal to these bodies will be a major step toward focusing world
attention on the human rights crisis in the Philippines. World
opinion, the PPT general secretary said, will add more pressure to the
U.S.-supported Arroyo government to stop the killings.

FOR REFERENCE:

Angelica M. Gonzales, MD

Executive Director, International Coordinating Secretariat

Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (PPT)

Second Session on the Philippines

secretariat@philippinetribunal.org

www.philippinetribunal.org

--
*********************************************
DAVAO TODAY
Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines
http://www.davaotoday.com
*********************************************