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By Maricel V.
Cruz, Reporter
Three Team
Unity senatorial bets on Friday questioned the issuance of an arrest
warrant against party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna by a
Leyte court for old rebellion charges.
Lakas-Christian
Muslim Democrats Rep. Prospero Pichay said the timing seemed to be
inappropriate, considering that it was an old case that is being
revived in time for the campaign period.
“This is a
question of timing. We can’t question the court if there is enough
evidence [against Ocampo] but why only now is the issue,” the
Surigao del Sur congressman told reporters during the administration
candidates’ sortie in Rizal.
But Pichay was
quick to say that Malacañang has nothing to do with reviving the
case against Ocampo.
He said those
who are not fully aware of the constitutional provision on the
separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary might
be swayed by the opposition’s paranoia that the Palace was behind
the issuance of the warrant.
Sen. Joker
Arroyo said there is something “grievously wrong” with the
warrants for the arrest for Ocampo and others as well as the
continued detention of militant party-list Crispin Beltran for
crimes committed before 1986 or during the martial law years.
Arroyo said it
would be improper for the military to revive the cases against
Ocampo when the policy positions of former presidents Aquino and
Ramos were designed “to put to rest the past adventurisms of the
Left and Right.”
“The armed
services must restrain from digging into the past which was intended
to be buried by past administrations,” he said in a press
statement.
The military
“must re-think its position. It has a responsibility to protect
the State and the people from current elements that would want to
subvert its authority; at the same time, it has also a duty to
adhere to established government policy that what is past is past,
otherwise, there will be no stability in government policy,”
Arroyo said.
Sen. Ralph
Recto expressed fears that the warrant for Ocampo, when taken
against the backdrop of the unsolved killings of activists, might
trigger a “better Red than dead” mentality among activists.
“I hope that
these developments will not lead them to abandon the legal
struggle,” Recto said.
Recto also
warned it would not be a good sign for the government “to force”
the militant lawmakers who have opted the parliamentary route in
achieving reforms to go underground again.
“If we
don’t give them space and push them against the wall, they will go
underground in droves and apply their talents in energizing their
movement,” he said.
The National
Bureau of Investigation has joined the police and the military in
hunting for Ocampo.
NBI Deputy
Director for Regional Operations Services Reynaldo Esmeralda said
the NBI’s National Capital Region has been tasked with assisting
the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the
Philippines serve the warrant against Ocampo.
“Other
regional offices in the provinces—such as Batangas and Quezon—have
also been alerted,” Esmeralda said.
 --With
Katrice R. Jalbuena
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