Produce Jonas, Extrajudicial killings by the Number

Sa dulo ng artikulo ganito ang pahayag ni Esperon:

Clash of figures
Esperon also reiterated a constant claim of government officials--that Karapatan was padding its figures. (According to Karapatan records, there have been more than 800 extrajudicial killings since 2001, when Arroyo came to office.)

He cited the 23 supposed members of the extremist Abu Sayyaf who were killed in Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan in March 2005 and who, he said, were on Karapatan's list.

"Even five men who it said were dead but were actually alive are included in the list. So what kind of motive is that?" he said.

Nakita nya na kaya ang listahan ng Karapatan? Nakakapagod man maglinis ng datos at alam kong hindi na rin matatawaran ang docu team ng karapatan sa kanilang pagsisiguro na maayos ang kanilang mga records ng mga victims at violations ito ay walang halaga sa mga katulad ni Esperon. Anupaman ang sabihin nya sa mga figures, ang makarecord ka ng isang extrajudicial killing at hindi katanggap-tanggap sa anumang atas, mula man sa diyos o sa tao.

O kung sa usapin man ng statistics, ang 0.005% na relative error na katumbas ng limang sinasabi nyang buhay na biktima ngunit na sa listahan ay hindi pa rin matitinag ang nakabuyangyang na katotohanan na may nagaganap na matinding
paglabag sa karapatang pantao.

Ano pa kaya kung isama na ang iba pang paglabag liban sa extrajudicial killings? E di lalong lumabas ang pagkabarbaro ng GMA administration at ang mga katulad Esperon.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Produce Jonas on Friday, SC orders military

By Leila Salaverria
Inquirer
Last updated 01:07am (Mla time) 07/25/2007


THE SUPREME COURT has ordered the Armed Forces to produce Jonas Burgos despite the military's insistence it was not holding the missing activist.

The tribunal's first division chaired by Chief Justice Reynato Puno issued a writ of habeas corpus in response to a petition filed by Jonas' mother, Edita Burgos, and ordered Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon and the other respondents, who included President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to present Jonas before the Court of Appeals in Manila on Friday morning, and to explain why he should continue to be detained.

It directed Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Ruben Reyes to immediately raffle Jonas' case among the court's justices, and said the designated justice should hear the case on Friday and submit a report to the tribunal after handing down his decision.

Copies of the writ of habeas corpus were released to the media only Tuesday, but it was dated July 16--the first day of the summit initiated by the Supreme Court to come up with solutions to the unabated extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances.

Said the high court's first division: "You (respondents) or your duly authorized representatives are hereby required to produce on 27 July 2007 at 10 a.m. the person of Jonas Joseph T. Burgos before the Court of Appeals and show cause why he should not be immediately released from detention."

The other respondents were Army chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, 7th Infantry Division head Maj. Gen. Juanito Gomez, Intelligence Service of the AFP chief Maj. Gen. Delfin Bangit, Escort and Security Battalion's Lt. Col. Noel Clement, 56th Infantry Battalion commanding officer Lt. Col. Melquiades Feliciano and Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Calderon.

Questions of fact
Supreme Court spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez Tuesday said the tribunal referred the case to the appellate court because there were questions of fact in Edita Burgos' petition that needed to be resolved in a trial.

Asked about the military's statement that it was not holding Jonas, Marquez said that claim would have to be heard in court. He said Jonas' mother would be at the hearing to present her arguments.

"We will see what will happen, depending on the arguments, if that writ will be sufficient to produce the person of Jonas Burgos," Marquez said.

Jonas, the 37-year-old son of the late press freedom fighter Jose Burgos, has been missing since April 28 after being forcibly taken by six men and one woman from the Ever Gotesco Mall in Quezon City.

His younger brother, Jose Luis "JL" Burgos, Tuesday told reporters in a phone patch interview that the family was "happy but cautious" about the writ of habeas corpus.

"The family continues to pray that Jonas is well. We're happy but cautious because we haven't gotten hold of Jonas. Until we get hold of Jonas, we will always be cautious," he said, adding:

"We hope that this is the chance we've been waiting for."

JL also said the family had sought help in finding Jonas from the military and police, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Office of the President, but that nothing concrete had come of it.

'Arroyo responsible'
He said the tribunal's order to the military to produce Jonas "only shows that the court believes that the military is involved in his abduction."

In her petition filed on July 11, Edita Burgos asked the high court to order the AFP to produce her son. She said the President was responsible for his disappearance and should be directed to pinpoint who among her security officials was behind it.

Burgos also said the police should be directed to search for Jonas and his abductors.

Her lawyer Ricardo Fernandez earlier told reporters that the family decided to go to the high court instead of the appellate court because the latter had purportedly dismissed habeas corpus cases against the military.

In calling for the two-day summit on extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances, Chief Justice Puno noted that writs of habeas corpus had not been effective in producing missing persons because the cases often ended with the respondents denying that they were holding these persons.

Punishment for guilty
Among the recommendations produced by the summit was the revision of the rules on habeas corpus to allow more permissible presentation of evidence and counter-evidence, and leeway for petitioners to ask the court for an order to search a specific place in the presence of the CHR and police.

General Esperon said the President's appeal to Congress in her State of the Nation Address to pass laws meting out harsh punishment to the perpetrators of political killings was borne out of her desire to get the killers.

"She really wants to punish the people who are guilty," he said.

Esperon stressed that the AFP itself wanted to get to the bottom of the killings, many of which had been blamed on it by militant groups.

He said the AFP had put up a human rights office and conducted investigations of soldiers linked to the killings, except that militant groups had refused to take part in these inquiries.

"Ano ba yan. [What's the ,matter?] Do they really believe in the judicial process, in the rule of law, or are they just engaging in propaganda?" he said.

Asked if he doubted the sincerity of militant groups in seeking an end to the killings, Esperon said: "I'm not doubting it. It's already confirmed."

He said he did not expect human rights groups like Karapatan to speak out against those who beheaded 10 Marines in Basilan early this month.

Clash of figures
Esperon also reiterated a constant claim of government officials--that Karapatan was padding its figures. (According to Karapatan records, there have been more than 800 extrajudicial killings since 2001, when Arroyo came to office.)

He cited the 23 supposed members of the extremist Abu Sayyaf who were killed in Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan in March 2005 and who, he said, were on Karapatan's list.

"Even five men who it said were dead but were actually alive are included in the list. So what kind of motive is that?" he said.
With reports from TJ Burgonio and Christine O. Avendaño