NDF files cases vs Arroyo, security execs before UN

The National Democratic Front (NDF) has lodged separate complaints against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and nine of her security officials before the United Nations (UN) over the disappearance of two of the organization's personnel in June 2006. In a statement on the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) website dated April 30, the NDF said it filed a formal complaint Friday last week. NDF negotiating panel chairman Luis Jalandoni filed two complaints before the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID) for the abduction by armed men and enforced disappearance of NDFP consultant Rogelio Calubad and his son Gabriel on June 17 last year. Calubad and his son Gabriel disappeared in Calauag, Quezon province. A second complaint involved the disappearance of NDF staff member Leopoldo Ancheta on June 24 last year in Guiguinto, Bulacan province. Jalandoni said President Arroyo was responsible for the enforced disappearances, as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP). Named in the first complaint were AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr; PNP chief Oscar Calderon; AFP Southern Luzon Command chief Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano; Intelligence Service of the AFP (ISAFP) head Commodore Leonardo Calderon Jr; PNP Intelligence Group chief Senior Superintendent Romeo Ricardo; and PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) head Chief Superintendent Jesus Versoza. Included as alleged perpetrators in the disappearance of NDFP staff Ancheta are National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales; AFP Northern Luzon Command chief Maj. Gen. Bonifacio Ramos; then commander of the 7th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Jovito Palparan Jr; PNP Central Luzon regional director Chief Supt. Ismael Rafanan; Esperon; Calderon; Calderon Jr.; Verzosa; and Superintendent Ricardo. Jalandoni said the UNWGEID complaints further highlight the alleged gross and systematic violations of human rights perpetrated by the Arroyo regime. "The complaints ... hold Mrs Gloria Arroyo and her generals responsible on the basis of command responsibility, and serve to intensify the international pressure on her regime to surface the involuntarily disappeared," he said. Jalandoni provided the UN special body with detailed accounts of the disappearances and additional documents to substantiate the charges. These include the verdict on March 25 of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal Second Session on the Philippines that found Arroyo guilty of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. He also presented the February 21 press statement of UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston, declaring that "the AFP remains in a state of almost total denial of its need to respond effectively and authentically to the significant number of killings which have been convincingly attributed to them." Likewise presented was Alston's March 27 report to the UN Human Rights Council, denouncing the use of "Orders of Battle" by the AFP, a practice which labels individuals and groups as enemies of the state and then targets them for assassination and political repression. He also presented a case study of the enforced disappearance of Lourdes Rubrico, 63, abducted, illegally detained and tortured by AFP elements in April 2007. Rubrico was abducted April 3, and was tortured and illegally detained for seven days inside the Fernando Air Base in Lipa City, Batangas. She was released "only after she signed a document saying that she agrees to be an 'asset' of military intelligence officers." Rubrico recently filed charges before the Ombudsman against Capt. Angelo Cuaresma, Ruben Alfaro, Jimmy Santana and a certain Jonathan of the Philippine Air Force intelligence, and Major Darwin Sy of the Philippine Army whose vehicle was used in her abduction. Cuaresma belongs to the 301st Air Intelligence and Security Squadron of the Philippine Air Force (PAF), which is based in Fernando Air Base. Jalandoni revealed that the NDFP Negotiating Panel is also preparing to file complaints for the enforced disappearance of its other consultants and staff and their immediate families, including Prudencio Calubid, his wife Celina Palma, and their companions Gloria Soco and Ariel Beloy, who were abducted on June 26 last year; and Leo Velasco, who was abducted last Feb. 19. - GMANews.TV