Release of Tagaytay 5 a victory for peasantry, says lawmaker

MANILA, Philippines — Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano on Saturday cited the recent release of five Tagaytay farmers accused of rebellion as a victory for the entire Philippine peasantry. Mariano, who is also the chairman of the militant farmer group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), said peasants are always the hardest hit by the Arroyo government’s alleged “policy of political repression and extra-judicial killings." “The Tagaytay 5’s hard-won victory is another hard slap on the face of the Arroyo administration," he said. The “Tagaytay 5" are peasant advocates Axel Pinpin, Aristedes Sarmiento, Riel Custodio, Enrico Ybanez, and Michael Masayes who were arrested in April 2006.by the military and subsequently charged with rebellion before the Tagaytay City Regional Trial Court. On August 20, Judge Edwin G. Larida Jr. of the RTC Branch 18 ordered the five detainees freed, which found their arrest and detention to have been done illegally. Mariano along with Cavite Rep. Jesus Crispin Remulla and Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III raised the same concern in jointly filing House Resolution 1244 seeking the release of the five detainees immediately after their arrest in 2006. On Saturday, Mariano expressed hopes that peasant leader Randall Echanis would also be freed in the coming days. Echanis was accused of multiple murder in relation to an alleged mass grave of communist purge victims unearther by the military headed by then chief-of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon in Innopacan, Leyte in August 2006. Mariano recalled that he himself was a victim of a trumped-up rebellion charge after President Arroyo’s declaration of Proclamation 1017 in 2006, and a murder-kidnapping case in Nueva Ecija. The Supreme Court in a resolution dubbed by human rights groups as “a landmark victory for human rights" in 2007 junked the rebellion case against Mariano and the late Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran, Bayan Muna Reps. Satur Ocampo, Teddy Casino, and Joel Virador, Rep. Liza Maza of Gabriela, and leaders of progressive organizations including Echanis. Recently, the Regional Trial Court in Guimba, Nueva Ecija also dismissed what the militant lawmakers dubbed as another “fabricated and politically-motivated case" to persecute progressives. “The Arroyo administration’s continuing use and abuse of the justice system against its most vocal critics must be stopped," Mariano said. Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32 Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina set the oral arguments on Echanis’ case on September 11. - GMANews.TV