DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 23 Mar) – A militant party list group on Friday vowed to hold a series of street protests to force the Philippine government to free two detained lawmakers allied with the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines.
The group Bayan Muna said it would intensify the protests across the country against government persecution of Reps. Satur Ocampo and Crispin Beltran. Both politicians have been accused of rebellion and murders.
Members of the group on Friday held a rally in Davao City and had also protested the unabated political killings and harassments of activists opposed to Arroyo’s rule.
It said hundreds of militants and political activists had been summarily executed in the Philippines since Arroyo assumed the presidency in 2001.
Militant party list groups accused the military as behind most of the killings, a charged strongly denied by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Beltran, of the party list group Anakpawis, is under medical care because of his deteriorating health condition, while Ocampo, of Bayan Muna, is fighting a government move to transfer him to Leyte province where he was charged of murdering dozens of rebels suspected of aiding the military almost two decades ago.
"After all the expedite moves to hold the arrest warrant on Satur Ocampo, have him arrested, and attempts to transfer him to Leyte, the respondents are now delaying the oral arguments set by the Supreme Court," Bayan Muna Rep. Joel Virador said.
Earlier, the Supreme Court reset the hearing on the petition filed by Ocampo to recall the arrest warrant issued against him by Leyte Judge Ephrem Abando on charges of multiple murder. The oral argument, originally set today, was moved to March 30. (With a report from Romy Bwaga)
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