DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 09 Mar) — The militant party list group Anakpawis on Friday warns of a tsunami of people’s wrath which will prove disastrous to Arroyo administration bets for the May elections should the government pursue arrest of Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo.
The group believes that the arrest warrant against Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo was the result of Malacañang bid to get rid of progressive party list groups.
Danilo Ramos, national council member of Anakpawis, said the administration ticket will surely suffer the from the anger of the people who have been offended by the continued crackdown of the government against progressive partylist groups like Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Anakpawis, Suara, and Kabataan.
“The people will show their anger in a manner that it will create a disaster among the candidates now being fielded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The government should be ready for this as it continues to trample and run after legitimate groups that are critical on its policies,” Ramos said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
“The arrest warrant against Satur (Ocampo) only exposes the desperation of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo government to stop its critics from winning in the elections,” he said.
He said that based on recent developments, a worse scenario would be for Ocampo to be arrested and second, for the government to relentlessly wage its own fight against progressive groups and move for their disqualification. If Ocampo will be arrested, then the thousands of people who believe in the fight being waged by the militant solon will certainly be offended and most likely will be vindictive, Ramos said.
“Ms Arroyo is jittery now as it is now facing a difficulty in funding the candidacy of their candidates…it might even suffer the fate of the Bush administration,” he said. Disqualification, however, he said is less likely as they expect for the Commission on Elections to dismiss the case filed against Bayan Muna, Gabriela, and Anakpawis as it did in January when it dismissed a disqualification case filed against Bayan Muna for lack of merit.
Ramos said the filing of the disqualification case was apparently the handiwork of the government.
“It is a scheme of the government to stop all of us. And the looming arrest of Satur is already a part of the grand design. The military has long been deployed in the slum areas of Metro Manila and other key cities of the country and in rural areas and the soldiers are hunting down leaders of militant organization considered by the government as enemies,” Ramos said.
A recent survey released this week by the Social Weather Station showed that Filipinos will likely to vote Bayan Muna over other party list groups with 17 percent followed by Anakpawis with 9.4 percent and Gabriela with 8.1 percent.
Ocampo said he will face the charges and that his lawyers are working on it.
Police have mounted a massive manhunt against Ocampo. "Don't tire yourselves, I will come out and present my self. I have never, not even once, backed out of this kind of fight," he said.
Authorities filed criminal charges against Ocampo over the summary execution of many New People's Army rebels suspected as government spies in central Philippines more than two decades ago.
The rebels, suspected of aiding the military in the operation against the NPA, were killed during a purge allegedly ordered by Ocampo and Jose Maria Sison, chief of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Ocampo, linked by the military and police to the CPP and its armed wing the NPA, has gone into hiding after a court in Leyte province ordered his arrest.
Ocampo condemned as a clear miscarriage of justice the issuance of a warrant of arrest against him in connection with purported communist purge.
"I am innocent of these invented charges. My right to due process was violated by the prosecutor and the judge who ignored seven solid bases for trashing the case. I will avail myself of legal remedies to correct this injustice against me,"Ocampo said.
Ocampo, who had been arrested in the past on rebellion charges, said he was in military custody from 1976 to 1985 and had nothing to do with the crimes. (Mindanao Examiner)
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