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JUSTICE Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez said on Wednesday
that the general amnesty declared by former President Corazon Aquino
does not apply to Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo.
Gonzalez said Ocampo never
applied for a pardon before the Amnesty Commission.
He said the murder charges
against Ocampo still stand even if the killings were committed more
than 20 years ago.
Last Friday, Ocampo failed to get
a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court on a warrant
for his arrest and was detained at the Manila Police District
headquarters.
The Court set oral arguments on
the case on Friday.
The warrant was issued by Judge
Ephrem Abando of the Regional Trial Court of Hilongos, Leyte, where
Ocampo is being charged with 15 counts of murder for the execution
in 1985 of about 50 communist cadres believed to be government
spies.
Executive Secretary Eduardo
Ermita agreed with Gonzalez that Ocampo is not entitled to the
amnesty declared by Aquino.
Ermita said Aquino’s Executive
Order 350, which gave the Moro National Liberation Front and the New
People’s Army the chance to return to the folds of the law, could
not be invoked by Ocampo to stop his arrest.
He said EO 350 was only a verbal
statement and not a written proclamation.
It was only during the time of
President Fidel Ramos in 1992 that Proclamation 10 was issued.
“I know that because I was
undersecretary of defense during the time of President Aquino,”
Ermita said.
There were subsequent
proclamations, including one that created the National Unification
Commission, he said.
Ermita said Gregorio Honasan
was granted amnesty in 1995 paving way for his running for the
Senate in 1996.
On Wednesday government lawyers
asked the Supreme Court to defer the oral argument on the petition
Ocampo filed.
In a three-page motion, Solicitor
General Agnes Devanadera, acting as counsel for the Philippine
National Police, Department of the Interior and Local Government and
Department of Justice, said they could not comply with the Supreme
Court order because they still have to coordinate with other
respondent government agencies to be able to put up a good defense.
“The petition raises several
factual matters requiring verification from and coordination with
other government offices to ascertain their veracity . . . under the
circumstances, respondents are constrained for further time within
which to submit the required comment,” Devanadera said.
--Jomar Canlas and
Sam Mediavilla
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