Malacañang, AFP, PNP officials face contempt over no-show

Malacañang’s top security adviser as well as the chiefs of the Armed Forces and National Police risk being cited in contempt for their non-appearance Monday at a habeas corpus hearing at the Court of Appeals in Manila. Radio station dzBB reported that the appellate court ordered National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, AFP chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon and PNP chief Director General Oscar Calderon to explain their absence in Monday’s hearing. The order came following the three officials’ absence in the habeas corpus petition by the family of farmer Leopoldo Ancheta, whose disappearance in Bulacan province in June 24 remains a mystery. The court gave Gonzales, Esperon and Calderon until Thursday to submit their explanation for their no-show, dzBB said. Earlier this month, the families of at least eight other militant workers had asked the Supreme Court to compel authorities to produce their loved ones. All had accused the police and military of perpetrating the abduction as part of the government’s all-out campaign against suspected insurgents. The spate of political killings and disappearances of leftist activists have reached alarming proportions that even Gonzales disclosed the government was considering tapping representatives from other countries to probe extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. “(The) government is prepared for the formation of an independent international fact-finding body composed of reputable members to investigate the killings and the disappearances," Gonzales said last week. Gonzales’ pronouncements came on the heels of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s directive for the police and the justice department to solve 10 cases of activist and journalist killings in 10 weeks’ time. -GMANews.TV