Inclusion of Lawyers in Military’s Order of Battle, Red-Baiting Slammed

A group of lawyers condemned the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Arroyo government for listing lawyers in the military’s order of battle.

Based on the own monitoring and documentation of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) and Counsels for the Defense of Liberties (CODAL) from 2001 to 2008, there were 15 lawyers and two lawyers’ groups who have either been told they are included in the military’s order of battle (OB) or have been openly labeled as rebels. Two of the 15 have already been killed.Atty. Norman Bocar was gunned down, September 1, 2005, in Borongan, Eastern Samar. He was among those listed in the OB called Oplan Ligpit (Operation Plan Exterminate) of the 8th Infantry Division.

Atty. Juvy Magsino was shot dead on February 13, 2004 in , Naujan, Mindoro Oriental. In 2002, then Col. Jovito Palparan Jr. of the 2nd nfantry Division of the Philippine Army labeled Atty. Magsino as a communist and supporter of the New People’s Army (NPA). Palparan even told the media that the Army would be monitoring Atty. Magsino.

Atty. Remigio Saladero, legal counsel of labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) has been charged with false criminal charges in relation to two incidents of raid by the New People’s Army (NPA). Saladero has beenlabeled as a member of the NPA; the military said his supposed nom de guerre is Ka Patrick. He is detained at the Calapan City District Jail.

In 2004, Judge Romeo Capulong also became a subject of black propaganda and demonization campaign of the AFP and the Philippine National Police (PNP). He was then serving as the counsel for the striking workers of the huge farmland Hacienda Luisita. In the AFP publications “Trinity of War,” “Part III: Overview of Hacienda Luisita Incidents and Other Significant Events,” and powerpoint presentation “Knowing the Enemy,” Judge Capulong, with the PILC, was made out as a tool of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), NPA and National Democratic Front (NDF) purportedly in order to bring the issues concerning the Hacienda Luisita to an international level.

On January 24, 2005, in a command conference at Camp Macabulos in Tarlac, then Philippine Army Northern Luzon Command Chief Lt. Romeo Dominguez told the national security adviser and the presidential chief of staff that militant groups such as Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela,under the leadership of Judge Capulong and Tarlac City Council Abelardo Ladera, were the cause of the turmoil at the Hacienda Luisita. Ladera was later killed on March 3, 2005.

Neri Javier Colmenares, secretary general of the NUPL, was himself a victim of labeling. In 2005, Colmenares has been informed by a colleague working in government that he was included in the OB. In the same year, the long-defunct Protestant Lawyers League of the Philippines (PLLP) and the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) were among the organizations listed by the military in the security briefing titled “Knowing the Enemy” as an “enemies of the state.”

In July 2006, Attys. Colmenares, Edre Olalia Ingrid Gorre and other CODAL convenors were falsely linked to the underground movement by members of the PNP’s Task Force Usig. The incident happened during and after an international fact-finding mission on attacks on Filipino lawyers and judges hosted by CODAL. Meanwhile, sometime in November 2006, Atty. Emil Bermas found a letter inserted at the gate of his residence, requiring him to attend a workshop so that his name would be deleted in the military’s order of battle.

On October 6, 2006, around 9 a.m., Atty. Robert Tudayan received an anonymous letter. When he opened the envelope, he saw a black ribbon inside.

Before the incident, on the last week of September, Atty. Tudayan was labeled as a lawyer for the NPA by elements of the 50th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army in a forum conducted at Barangay (village) Burobor, Galimuyod, Ilocos Sur.

In separate incidents from 2001 to 2008, human rights lawyers Jobert Pahilga, Tirsendo Poloyapoy, Pergentino Deri-on, Tonyboy Azarcon, Ernesto Peñaflor and David Erro were also labeled as members of the NPA.

Atty. Harry Roque received text messages on January 3, 2007 labeling him as a lawyer of the “communist terrorist group in the Philippines.”

Colmenares said,”Such labeling puts our lives in danger. Two of our colleagues who had been in the military’s OB have been killed and so are the many victims of extrajudicial killings in the country.”

Colmenares said the Arroyo government did not heed one of the most important recommendations of United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston. In his final report, Alston said, “The Government should immediately direct all military officers to cease making public statements linking political or other civil society groups to those engaged in armed insurgencies…They must be based on transparent criteria, and conform with the human rights provisions of the Constitution and relevant treaties.”

Alston also said that transparency must be introduced to the “orders of battle”, “watch lists”, and similar list of individuals and organizations maintained by the AFP, PNP, and other elements of the national security system.

These forms of attacks on lawyers, said Colmenares, prove that the Arroyo government’s counter-insurgency program targets civilians, including lawyers who are defenders of human rights. The NUPL, together with CODAL, is hosting the Dutch Lawyers for Lawyers Foundation’s International Verification and Fact-Finding Mission (IVFFM) on the Attacks against Filipino Lawyers and Judges. The 9-day Mission of Dutch and Belgian judges and lawyers will culminate tomorrow, November 12, 2008, at which time the delegation intends to come up with a statement at a press statement in the morning.#

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