PhilippinesLabor center demands immediate release of NDFP consultant Elizabeth Principe

THE labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) today urged the Commission on Human Rights and the committee on justice of both the Congress and Senate to conduct separate investigations to the abduction and subsequent torture of surfaced National Democratic Front (NDF) consultant Elizabeth Principe.

KMU Chairperson Elmer “Ka Bong” Labog said, that Principe’s allegation that she was abducted last November 28 by military agents and only surfaced by military on December 1 must be investigated. In her statement posted in the website, Principe accused that ” I was blindfolded, handcuffed, and for 72 hours my ears were inundated with sounds. I was held incommunicado and interrogated inside the Intelligence Service Group at the Philippine Army Headquarters in Fort Bonifacio since 28 November. I was denied my right to counsel.”

Labog expressed dismay that while Principe became a victim of enforced disappearance and torture, she was later maliciously implicated as an conspirator to the the Manila Pen siege last November 29 by government’s spin doctors.

” Elizabeth Principe is now maliciously implicated to the Manila Peninsula stand-off that happened one day after her abduction by military agents. We believe her story that she didn’t even know that the stand-off occurred in the Manila Peninsula since she was held incommunicado and even tortured at the same time Senator Trillanes and fellow protestors were occupying the hotel. It is grossly unjust that an another horrible crime perpetrated by government forces will be overlooked and will be even unattended by people who swore to serve and protect the people in the name of a brutal campaign against the so called “enemies of the state. We strongly urged the CHR and our legislators in Congress and Senate to investigate this and act accordingly,” Labog said.

The labor leader also said that Principe must be immediately released since she was arrested illegally and for humanitarian grounds since she is suffering from various illness. In her statement, Principe wrote that her abduction and arrest came after her check-up at the Fern Laboratory in Quezon City and not in a mall as military maliciously peddled by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

” We demand Principe’s immediate release and for the military to surface all the victims of enforced disappearance like in the case of Leo Velasco, Principe’s husband. We also ask the public to expose and oppose the Arroyo government’s desperate move to its outrageous and ridiculous Left and Right Conspiracy theory in the Manila Peninsula siege acceptable. The Filipino people must not be a party to any injustice that this government is capable of and will do in the future,” Labog stressed. ###

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