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Pamalakaya rejects Palace commission on political killings

Leaders of the leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Friday rejected the proposed Malacañang commission that would look into the unstoppable killings of leftist militants across the country.

" We will not cooperate with any Palace-initiated investigation on political killings. We will not deal with the mastermind of the 728 extra-judicial killings," Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said Malacañang was planning to put up a powerful commission that will probe the killing of journalists and activists. The Palace spokesman said a retired Supreme Court Justice topping the short list of appointees to be named by President Arroyo will head the powerful body.

" Let them talk to their own shadows, but as far as the families and other relatives of the victims are concerned, they would not give premium to this national masquerade and roller-coaster escapade being planned by President Arroyo and the national security syndicate in Malacañang," Hicap said.

Pamalakaya's rejection of Palace commission on political killings came a day after the US-based United Methodist Church issued a strongly worded statement calling US President George W. Bush to apply pressure on the Philippine government to respect civil liberties and human rights and enforce effective policing and judicial process.

Last Wednesday, Orlando Rivera, 49 years old, and leader of Pamalakaya-Obando chapter was gunned down by alleged military assassins inside his house, while the door of another Pamalakaya-Obando leader Sonny de Armas was marked X by supposedly military agents.

Pamalakaya said only an independent and credible commission would enjoy their trust and convince them to participate in the investigation to resolve the spate of political killings in the country. " We were not born yesterday, not to understand the sinister agenda behind Malacañang's formation of its' own commission on political killings," the group said.

The militant group said the military in Bulacan under the command of Major General Jovito Palparan is hunting down 12 others leaders of the group's local chapter in Obando, Bulacan.

Pamalakaya said the military maintained a list of 13 leaders of the group, who lead the fight last year against the Navotas dumpsite in Barangay Binuangan, Obando in Bulacan province.

"The 13 leaders of Pamalakaya in Obando are open target of military's active research and neutralization campaign under the Malacañang-Armed Forces of the Philippines' orchestrated Oplan Bantay Laya project. Rivera is dead and Palparan's death squad might soon pursue the assassination campaign on other 12 leaders in vain attempt to cleanse Obando of political activists and ordinary critics of President Arroyo," Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

" Rivera is the latest political activist offered by Palparan to Mrs. Arroyo's altar of political repression and state terror. This orgy of death and festival of killings in Central Luzon and other parts of the country will continue unless the Office of the President and the national security syndicate in Malacañang stop its' unbridled bloody campaign against political activists across-the-nation," Hicap stressed.

Hicap said the military suspected Pamalakaya leaders in Obando who led the series of blocking the barge carrying Metro Manila garbage to Navotas dumpsite were members of the New People's Army operating in the coastal towns of Bulacan.

Aside from Rivera, the 12 other fisherfolk leaders in military's close surveillance and in Palparan's order of battle are Ricardo de Armas, chairman of Pamalakaya-Bulacan, Sonny de Armas, Pamalakaya-Obando chair and Pamalakaya-Obando council of leaders Celso Balasta, Obet Calbadores, Adriano del Rosario, Racelito San Diego, Rey Silangan, Nading dela Cruz, Arthur Burgos, Isidro dela Cruz, Cecilio Alcantara and Virgilio del Rosario.

"If something bad happen to our colleagues in Obando, we will not hesitate to file scores of criminal charges against Palparan and other Mrs. Arroyo's paid assassins. As for Rivera's killers, including Palparan and his protégées in Bulacan, they will have their time in court in soonest possible time," Pamalakaya's Hicap added.

Pamalakaya said, next week it would formally ask the Senate Committee on Human Rights chaired by Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan and House Committee on Human rights chair Rep. Benny Abante (6th district, Manila) to conduct a separate or joint on-site congressional inquiry on the assassination of Rivera and the ongoing military campaign in Obando and other coastal areas in Bulacan.

" We appeal to Sen. Pangilinan and Rep. Abante to score a major political act in aid of legislation to stop the spate of killings and wholesale massacre of civil liberties and basic human rights in Obando and other parts of Central Luzon, which is now the biggest laboratory of the Arroyo administration for political assassination and state terror," the group said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:15 | link | comments |

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