I will make use of the increasingly tapered space in the judicial system, to expose the incredulity of the accusations hurled against me, and to defend my name and the peoples movement of which I come from” — Alvin Luque
DAVAO CITY A local court has recalled the warrant of arrest it issued against Alvin Luque, the former secretary-general here of the progressive Bayan, his lawyer said Tuesday night.
The order by Judge Marivic Daray of the Regional Trial Court Branch 14, will allow the prosecution to file within 10 days its comment or opposition to the motion for reconsideration earlier filed by Luque questioning the warrant, Isagani Zarate, Luques lawyer, told davaotoday.com.
Luque will then have as many days to reply to the prosecutions comment or opposition. Only then can the court decide whether or not to junk or uphold Luques motion for reconsideration.
Luque, a high-profile leader of the Davao Citys progressive sector who once ran for the City Council under Mayor Rodrigo Dutertes party, is facing rebellion charges filed by the military, who accused him of being a leader of the communist New Peoples Army.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Luque said he was ready to face this battle.
I will make use of the increasingly tapered space in the judicial system, to expose the incredulity of the accusations hurled against me, and to defend my name and the peoples movement of which I come from, said Luque, who has since been assigned as Bayan secretary-general in Northern Mindanao and is based in Cagayan de Oro. (Read his full statement here.)
The human-rights group Karapatan, which has been monitoring Luques case, welcomed the recall of the warrant. Kelly Delgado, its spokesperson, said the move would give time for Luque and his counsels to assert his innocence and the justness of his cause.
“We are ready to engage and maximize all available resources of the justice system, no matter how it has been made narrow by the Arroyo government, Delgado said.
Over the last four years, he said, Luque has been hounded with charges by the military, which accused him of being leader of the underground New Peoples Army. Before his job at Bayan, Luque was a former student leader, a teacher at a religious-run college in Davao, a staff of a labor institution.
The military started hounding Luque after he and other progressive leaders severely criticized the 73rd Infantry Battalion and Col. Eduardo del Rosario of the Task Force over the Pangyan Massacre in April 2002.
That year, del Rosario filed the rebellion charges against Luque, along with 13 alleged New Peoples Army members. Since then, the military has consistently linked progressive leaders with the communists. During a picket of the Task Force Davao offices this week, the military put up streamers naming several progressive leaders as communists.
Del Rosario, during a press conference on Tuesday, said there was nothing wrong with the streamers. The militants have been calling me a berdugo (butcher) for years so why are they complaining? he told reporters.
But Delgado said what the military did was dangerous given that dozens of activists, many of them from Bayan and Bayan Muna, have been assassinated under the Arroyo administration. (davaotoday.com)
