Archive for March 20th, 2007
Military has witness to impugn Ocampo in Leyte mass slay
MANILA, Philippines — Security forces have a witness to prove that Bayan Muna party-list representative Satur Ocampo was in Leyte province in 1985, where close to 100 rebels were killed in an alleged communist purge and buried in a mass grave on his orders, a military spokesman said Tuesday.
Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro issued the statement in response to Ocampo’s defense he could not have ordered the supposed mass killing within the communist movement since he was in jail at the time of the murders.
“One witness also stated that he saw Representative Satur Ocampo in Leyte in 1985,” Bacarro said.
During the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, Ocampo was under military custody for rebellion from 1976 until he escaped in 1985 while at the National Press Club, Bacarro said.
He added that Ocampo surfaced in 1986 and was arrested for kidnapping and murder in 1987.
“So it was within the period from 1985, when he escaped, until such time that he was arrested in 1987, he was free to go around. It was also during that period that the mass murder in Inopacan, Leyte started,” the spokesman said.
He refused to discuss in detail the identity of the said witness or its testimony but he said the military’s witnesses against Ocampo include former New People’s Army (NPA) guerillas.
“I don’t want to reveal the identity of the witness but he is very, very credible,” he said.
Ocampo’s transfer to the central province of Leyte, where he would face the 22-year-old multiple murder case, was delayed Monday after Leyte Judge Ephrem Abando granted the leftwing lawmaker’s motion to keep him in Manila until the Supreme Court hears his petition on Friday.
Satur Ocampo surfaced last Friday to question before the Supreme Court the charges against him. He was subsequently arrested.
Asked if Ocampo’s presence in Leyte in 1985 proved his involvement in the supposed purge, Bacarro said: “Based on our reading, he had something to do with giving orders, giving orders to members of the NPA to conduct this mass murder.”
Ocampo is charged with 15 counts of murder before a Tacloban City court. The charge represents the 15 of the 67 skeletons recovered from the mass grave of alleged rebels slain during the infamous “Oplan Ahos,” a bloody purge within the communist movement that claimed thousands of lives from 1985 to 1991.
The Army’s 8th Infantry Division discovered the mass grave in Sapang Dako village, Inopacan town, dubbed “The Garden” in late August. On Monday, Bacarro said troops were locating a second mass grave in the area.
View article as posted on INQUIRER.net
Officer in Lamitan siege named Western Visayas Army chief
MANILA, Philippines — An Army general who figured in the bungled siege of Lamitan, Basilan in 2001 that resulted in the escape of cornered Abu Sayyaf bandits and their hostages has been named the new commander of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division based in Western Visayas.
Major General Jovenal Narcise, formerly chief of staff of the Philippine Army, confirmed in a text message that he assumed his new post last March 15.
Narcise replaced Major General Victor Ibrado, who took over from retired major general Benito Ramos as chief of the Army’s elite Special Operations Command (Socom).
The Army inspector general, Major General Melchor Dilodilo, replaced Narcise as Army chief.
Defending Narcise’s appointment, Army spokesman Major Ernesto Torres said: “He has been acquitted in the [Lamitan] case.”
“He [Narcise] is qualified for the position based on seniority, and his experience as brigade commander…We trust the wisdom of the Board of Generals,” Torres said.
The Board of Generals is a top-level committee in the Armed Forces that recommends assignments.
As commander of the Army’s 103rd Brigade, Narcise commanded a June 2001 dragnet around the Jose Torres Memorial hospital in Lamitan town where Abu Sayyaf fighters were holding hostages seized from the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan province as well as hospital staff.
The bandits escaped with their hostages, among them American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham. At that time, the Army leadership called in reinforcements from Manila when troops were available in nearby Tuburan town.
“There was no evidence to prove that there was collusion between the military and the Abu Sayyaf,” Torres told reporters.
In his testimony before a congressional inquiry, Lamitan parish priest Cirilo Nacorda accused some military commanders of allowing the bandits to escape, allegedly in exchange for a cut of the ransom paid for the Abu Sayyaf hostages
Martin Burnham was killed a year after the Lamitan siege in a rescue operations by security forces. Gracia Burnham survived and in mid-2004 testified in court against her accused captors.
View article as posted on INQUIRER.net
Trillanes asks court to reconsider media ban
MANILA, Philippines — Ex-Navy lieutenant Antonio Trillanes IV has asked a Makati City court to reconsider its decision denying his petition to grant media interviews from his Fort Bonifacio detention facility on his senatorial campaign for the May elections.
“We raised many issues. Basically, we maintain that the motion [to grant media interviews] is reasonable and the denial thereof is without basis,” Trillanes’ lawyer, Reynaldo Robles, said in a text message.
Trillanes is being tried on coup d’etat charges before branch 148 of the Makati regional trial court along with 28 other junior officers and two enlisted men.
The accused soldiers are accused of leading some 300 others in a failed mutiny during which they occupied the Oakwood luxury apartments in Makati City on July 27, 2003.
Judge Oscar Pimentel denied Trillanes’ petition for media interviews two weeks ago, saying he did not want to encroach on the security setup at the Philippine Marines brig in Fort Bonifacio, where the former Navy man is detained.
Trillanes is running under the Genuine Opposition banner.
He was considered resigned from the service when he filed his certificate of candidacy last February 6.
View article as posted on INQUIRER.net
Metro barangay captains ask for more troops
MANILA, Philippines — Village chiefs in depressed Manila communities have written the Army leadership to ask that more troops be deployed to their areas because the military presence helped deter crime.
But the village chiefs made little or no mention of the Army’s community service program, which officials said is the main thrust of the troop deployment in Metro Manila.
The Armed Forces’ Civil Relations Service (CRS) released photocopies of the signed letters through its group commander for Metro Manila, Captain Eugenio Julio Osias IV.
The letters were all from barangay (village) officials in Manila, and did not include letters from Qezon and Caloocan cities, where troops have also been deployed.
” I respectfully request the retention of Philippine Army officers, and if possible, we want an additional group [from the] Philippine Army to be deployed here in our area,” said Teresita Lumactud, chairperson for barangay 649 in Manila.
“These officers have been of great help as [a] deterrent to criminal elements, especially among [the] peace-loving community,” Lumactud added in the letter dated March 8.
In a certificate dated November 23, 2006, Bayani Geronimo, the village chief of Kahilom I in Manila’s Pandacan district, said Army troops conducted community service in his area.
“This further certifies that their [soldiers'] performance is excellent and created a feeling of being at ease between the officials of the Philippine Army and our constituents,” Geronimo said.
Of all the seven village chiefs whose letters the military released to media, Geronimo was the only one who confirmed that the troops were involved in community service.
Left-wing party list groups have accused soldiers deployed in the capital of campaigning against them and harassing their supporters. But an internal military investigation and the Commission on Human Rights National Capital Region office have cleared the soldiers of the electioneering allegations.
Nevertheless, last week, Armed Forces chief General Hermogenes Esperon Jr. admitted that the troop deployment in the national capital region is part of the counterinsurgency strategy, Oplan Bantay Laya 2.
Since November 2006, the military has deployed nine-man teams to 27 depressed communities in Metro Manila.
View article as posted on INQUIRER.net
