CONDEMN the continuing crackdown of this FASCIST US_ARROYO REGIME against militant activist (repost)

Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights

KARAPATAN - SOUTHERN TAGALOG

Press Release

November 3, 2008

Reference: Glen Malabanan, Deputy Secetary General, KARAPATAN-ST,

Peasant Leader in Cavite Nabbed as crackdown against militant activists in Southern Tagalog continue

On November 3, 2008, at 7:30 in the evening, Katipunan ng mga Magbubukid sa Kabite (Kamagsasaka-Ka) spokesperson Rogelio Galit was taken by around 15 armed men wearing civilian clothes, from his house in Brgy. Kaong, Silang Cavite. Initial reports say Galit will be brought to Camp Vicente Lim in Calamba City. Galit is suffering from diabetis and is already bedridden.

Galit is among 72 others who were accused of committing multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder in an NPA ambush in Puerto Galera, Mindoro Oriental last March 3, 2006. The charges were filed at the Calapan City Regional Trial Court under Judge Tomas Leynes. Around 30 of the 72 accused are activist leaders and members of militant people’s organizations.

Glen Malabanan, Deputy Secretary General of the Human Rights group Karapatan-Southern Tagalog said the charges were fabricated and is still part of the Arroyo administrations on going campaign to silence militant activists.

“This tactic of wholesale filing of criminal charges against militant activists is a systematic effort of the Arroyo regime’s internal security agencies. It is still under Arroyo’s counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya which aims to neutralize groups it considers leftist or communist,” Malabanan said.

Among those facing criminal charges are prominent regional and provincial leaders in Southern Tagalog including:

· Arman Albarillo, Sec. Gen, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Southern Tagalog (Bayan-ST); a signatory in the 2008 impeachment complaint against President Arroyo;

· Bayani Cambronero, 8^th Partylist nominee and Southern Tagalog Regional Coordinator, Bayan Muna;

· Romeo Legaspi, Chairperson, Pagkakaisa ng mga Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan-Kilusang Mayo Uno (PAMANTIK-KMU)

· Rolando Mingo, President, Southern Tagalog Region Transport Sector Organization, (STARTER); Vice President, Pinagkaisang Lakas ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON)

· Orly Marcellana, Secretary General, Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (Kasama-TK); Chairperson, Bayan-ST

· Doris Cuario, Secretary General, Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights – Southern Tagalog (KARAPATAN)

· Helen Asdolo, Secretary General, National Alliance of Women’s Organizations in the Philippines (GABRIELA) - Southern Tagalog; 5^th partylist nominee, Gabriela Women’s Party

· Atty. Remigio Saladero, Legal Counsel, KMU; Founding Member, National Union of People’s Lawyers; Labor Lawyer, Pro-Labor Legal Assistance Center (PLACE); Regular columnist, Pinoy Weekly

Three of the accused are already imprisoned in Calapan City. The illegal arrests bagan with Atty. Remigio Saladero last October 23 in Antipolo City, followed by Nestor San Jose on October 24 in Teresa, Rizal, and Crispin Zapanta on October 27 also in Antipolo City.

San Jose is a transport leader and Anakpawis Partylist coordinator while Zapanta is a member of Bayan Muna.

Malaban said the charges were meant to paralyze these activists by trying to detain them or force them into hiding.

Prior to the arrest of Atty. Saladero, another complaint against Southern Tagalog activists, was also filed in the Batangas Provincial Prosecutor’s Office by Marlo Timbreza in behalf of Globe telecoms, regarding the burning and bombing of a Globe cellsite in Lemery Batangas last August 2, 2008. Timbreza alleged that 27 persons, mostly activists, committed arson, destruction of private property and conspiracy to commit rebellion.

17 of the 27 facing the complaint in Batangas are also in the Mindoro case, including Atty. Saladero, San Jose, Galit, Cambronero, Mingo, among others.

Malabanan said that it is not unlikely that the Arroyo regime is again using Southern Tagalog as a laboratory for this new wave of political repression as it did before launching on a nationwide scale, the policy of extrajudicial killings. From 2001 to March 2008, Karapatan-ST has documented 167 victims of extrajudicial killings and 31 of enforced disappearance in the region.

On November 5, groups led by Bayan-ST and Karapatan-ST are set to stage a rally at the Department of Justice in Manila.#