MANILA, DECEMBER 24, 2010 (STAR) By Jaime Laude - Five of the "Morong 43" health workers who were ordered released from detention by the court have refused to leave the protective custody of the Philippine Army (PA).
The five who confessed that they were members of the New People's Army (NPA) shortly after their arrest last Feb. 6 in Morong, Rizal said they feel safer with their Army custodians than in their respective homes.
Acting Army spokesman and chief of the Army's public affairs, Col. Daniel Lucero, said that the five self-confessed rebels refused to go with members of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) led by Commissioner Jose Mamawag along with Karapatan members Cristina Palabay and Marie Hilao Enriquez following their meeting at Fort Bonifacio.
One of the mothers of the five, Adoracion Paulino, who joined Mamawag and the Karapatan members, tried but failed to convince her son Valentino to go with their group.
"Mrs. Paulino was in tears as she tried to convince her son to come home, but Valentino, in front of Commissioner Mamawag, cited fear of retaliation from the NPA as one of the primary reasons why he opted to stay inside the military camp at Camp Capinpin, Tanay, Rizal," Lucero said.
The other four – Cherilyn Tawagon, Eleanor Carandang, Jennyllyn Pizzaro, and John Mark Barrientos – also told Mamawag that it's their decision to stay and they were not coerced to do so.
Because of this, Mamawag and his party left Fort Bonifacio empty-handed.
Appearing in a television show yesterday, the five reiterated their earlier confession that all of them were active NPA members when they were arrested during a combined military and police raid in Morong.
They also scored Karapatan for being deceptive and manipulative. Carandang even claimed that Karapatan pressured her to refute her claim by taking her child through her relatives.
The five were preparing to return to Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal when Mrs. Paulino, members of CHR and Karapatan chanced upon them at Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.
The rest of the group who claimed that they were mere health workers undergoing health training in Morong were ordered released two weeks ago by a Morong Regional Trial Court upon the dropping of charges against them by the Department of Justice on instructions of President Aquino.
Another door closes on Lacson
(MALAYA) A Manila court has rejected the second motion of Sen. Panfilo Lacson to compel the Department of Justice to reinvestigate the criminal charges against him in connection with the November 2000 murders of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.
In a two-page order dated December 21, Manila RTC Branch 18 acting Presiding Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina said Lacson's lawyers failed to present new arguments or issues.
The court said that any disposition on the part of the DOJ with regards to the reinvestigation will ultimately still be subject to the court's appreciation.
The court pointed out that Lacson already filed a petition for certiorari with the Court of Appeals assailing its orders dated February 4, 2010 and July 23, 2010 finding probable cause that he committed the crime as charged.
Thus, the court said, the better course of action is to just await for the decision of the appellate court on that petition.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima in a press briefing said the Manila court's ruling affirmed her opinion that any disposition to be made by the DOJ on Lacson's request for reinvestigation will still be subject to the scrutiny of the court and may only further delay the proceedings.
"That's one of the main reasons why I refused to reinvestigate at this point. The court already made its own determination of judicial probable cause," she said.
Lacson was accused of ordering the Dacer-Corbito murders based on allegations of Mancao, one of his deputies in the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force.
Mancao, a co-accused turned prosecution witness, claimed he overheard then PNP chief Lacson giving orders to another former police officer, Michael Ray Aquino, to carry out the plot to kill Dacer. – Evangeline de Vera
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