RESPONDENTS
6. GEN. HERMOGENES ESPERON is the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, with postal address at the Office of the Chief of Staff, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City. Gen. Esperon is a respondent because he ORDERED the deployment of the troops in Metro-Manila and has full control of the said troops.
7. GEN. BENJAMIN DOLORFINO, is the Commander of the National Capital Regional Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines with postal address at NCRCom, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City. Gen. Dolorfino is a respondent because he not only defends the deployment of troops in the National Capital Region but he also IMPELEMENTS THE ORDER FOR THE DEPLOYMENT OF THE TROOPS as the commander of the NCRCom.
8. LT. ROEL COTILLON, is a member of the Civil-Military Operations Unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, deployed in Payatas, Quezon City. He may be served with court processes at the Barangay Hall, Payatas, Quezon City. Lt. Cotillon is a respondent because he implements the questioned Order subject of this Petition and has caused specific injury on Petitioners in the implementation of the questioned order.
STATEMENT OF FACTS
In December 2006 Petitioner Bayan Muna began hearing reports of armed soldiers roaming in Metro-Manila communities where Bayan Muna has chapters. In January 2006 members of the Diocese of Novaliches reported that military personnel were interrogating people from various Quezon City communities if they are members of Bayan Muna and other progressive party list groups and warning them not to join or vote for these groups. Petitioners Gabriela, Kabataan and Suara also began receiving reports of soldiers deployed in selected communities in Metro Manila. Reports of military harassment continue to trickle in from chapters of Petitioners in Tondo and Holy Spirit. The soldiers were seen patrolling Metro Manila communities in full battle gear and armed with high powered rifles [Attached as Annex A is copy of a picture of armed soldiers in Baseco Compound, Tondo taken by Philippine Daily Inquirer Photographer Edwin Bacasmas].
On 26 February 2007 Petitioner Corbes was accosted by members of the deployed troops in Urban Road, Payatas led by Respondent Lt. Roel Cotillon, for bringing membership registration forms of Bayan Muna. He strongly declared that yang Bayan Muna ay mga NPA and telling Corbes to stop campaigning for Bayan Muna otherwise kung ayaw mong tigilan yan hindi ka na aabutin ng Cuaresma.
On March 1, 2007 at about 2:00 a.m. Corbes was seriously injured when persons trying to break his door threw large rocks at him. He filed a criminal complaint with Lt. Cotillon with the Quezon City prosecutors office for the said criminal and illegal acts. [Attached as Annex B is a copy of the Complaint Affidavit of Alberto Corbes, docketed as IS No. 07-2936 with the Quezon City Prosecutors Office]
Immediately thereafter Petitioners held a press conference and strongly denounced the ongoing urban militarization and inquired from the AFP the basis for its deployment of troops in the urban communities. The AFP initially failed to reply. Various sectors asked the COMELEC to intervene but the Comelec issued statements saying that they cannot intervene unless complaints are filed.
The media subsequently began reporting troop deployments in various communities in early March 2007. The case of Petitioner Corbes became the subject of an Editorial by the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) [Attached as Annex C is a copy of the PDI Editorial of March 6, 2007]. The PDI previously exposed the deployment of troops in its headlines Soldiers Prowling Slum Areas [Attached as Annex D is a copy of the headlines written by Mr. Tj Burgonio dated March 3, 2007]. PDI writer TJ Burgonia, author of the article on troop deployments, wrote that Barangay Commonwealth residents reported that strangely, the soldiers have been seeking out members of militant party list groups, and that they even rallied the people against voting for members of certain party-list groups.
2007 Elections
