Lawyers for detained Bayan Muna Rep. Satur C. Ocampo are prepared to
appear before the Supreme Court tomorrow at 1:00 pm at the tribunal’s
session hall at Padre Faura, Manila for oral arguments on the
lawmaker’s petition for certiorari seeking to trash the arrest warrant
and murder charge leveled against him.
Below is the speech of a Australian Senator delivered before the Federal Parliament that criticizes the arrest and detention of Bayan Muna Rep. Satur C. Ocampo. The lawmaker is demanding an explanation from the Australian foreign ministry on the situation in the Philippines, and the case of Ocampo and unresolved political killings.
Extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, political persecution, baseless accusations, and arbitrary arrest and detention have no place in a democracy. These are contradictory to it. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Norberto Gonzales, Raul Gonzalez, and the AFP cannot claim to be defending democracy, for they are a curse to it.
The seven bodies found in an alleged mass grave in Inopacan, Southern Leyte, which were presented in the multiple murder case against Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo, Jose Ma.Sison, Luis Jalandoni, Vicente Ladlad, Rafael Baylosis, Randal Echanis and several others, have already been buried and used in a case somewhere else.
Related story: Witness in Murder Case Vs. Satur a Desaparecido
She bore him for nine months in her womb. But Casimira Roluna, 78 years old, a resident of Brgy. Cabungaan, Baybay, Leyte, has not seen her son for nine months now. Her only proof of life was the news she heard over the radio last March 7, 2006 that her son, Glecerio Roluna, 48, is one of the witnesses being prepared by the military for the multiple murder case filed against Bayan Muna Party (People First) Representative Satur Ocampo, Jose Ma. Sison, and several others.