Group starts campaign to end case vs ‘Tagaytay 5’

MANILA, Philippines - A Hong Kong-based human rights group began Friday a letter-writing campaign to ask a judicial court to resolve soonest the two-year-old case of the so-called "Tagaytay 5." The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) asked citizens to write the court handling the case, and ask it to free the five suspects if pieces of evidence against them are insufficient. "Please write letters to concerned authorities, particularly to the court hearing the case so that the case can conclude promptly. If there are no sufficient grounds for the continuing detention of the accused, the charges against them must be dropped or their petition for bail, while the conclusion of their case is pending, should be acted upon," the AHRC said in a statement posted on its website early Friday. The letter campaign came hours before a court was to hear the petition of the five seeking the dismissal of their case. AHRC has sent letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture, the Working Group on arbitrary detention, and the Special Representative of the Secretary General for human rights defenders. Those accused, who continue to challenge the legality of their arrest, were arraigned only on June 16 this year, the AHRC noted. Riel Custodio, Alejandro Pinpin, Enrico Ybanez, Michael Masayes and Aristides Sarmiento were abducted and kept incommunicado in 2006. Custodio, Pinpin and Sarmiento were members of the "Kalipunan ng mga Magsasaka sa Kabite (Kamagsasaka-Ka or Farmers' Federation in Cavite)," advocating for the welfare of farmers. Ybanez and Masayes were ordinary persons. ‘Abduction’ Those who forcibly took the five into their custody were members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) attached to the Cavite Provincial Police Office (CPPO), Police Regional Office 4 –Regional Intelligence and investigation Division (PRO4 RIID), Cavite Police Provincial Mobile Group (PPMG-Tagaytay) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)-Philippine Navy Intelligence and Security Force (NISF). "For seven days following their arrest, their respective families were not properly informed of their whereabouts or that they were being held in police custody. From April 28 to May 2 of 2006, they were kept blindfolded and their hands were tied behind their backs. They were also questioned without their legal counsel, as well as physically harmed and threatened with electrocution and death. They were also taken to various military and police camps and safe houses. One of them, Aristides, suffered a second degree burn to his right leg that healed only four months later," the AHRC said. Also, they were charged for supposedly having been involved with the New Peoples' Army (NPA), and were allegedly deployed to destabilize the government on May 1 that year. Questionable charges "The manner in which the charges were filed, however, was questionable. For instance, the charges of rebellion were filed May 3 beyond the prescribed period, and the prosecutor from Tagaytay City prosecutor's office has neither seen them himself nor questioned the accused during the inquest he conducted. Thus, there was actually no real inquest proceeding held," AHRC said. It added there was also no preliminary investigation conducted into their case. When the accused were presented to the public and before the media on May 1, 2006, the policemen arresting them prematurely claimed they were members of the illegal armed group. "While the accused were in police custody, their custodians also forced and threatened them in an attempt to make them admit their supposed membership with the NPA," AHRC said. On May 3, 2006, PNP PR04-RIID took the accused to the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 18 in Tagaytay City for them to respond to the charges of rebellion they filed against them without any aid of counsel. On several occasions also, presiding judge Edwin Larida Jr. insisted on arraigning the accused despite unresolved questions on legality the arrests, the filing of charges and suspects’ detention. "From the time the case was filed, the five accused have not been arraigned until June 16 of this year because their case suffered repeated delays. For instance, the accused filed a motion to quash the charges against them, which only reached a conclusion on February 20, 2007 denying their petition, nearly a year after the motion was filed," AHRC said. It added the accused petition to have the hearing of their case transferred from the RTC Branch 18 in Tagaytay City to any RTCs in nearby Calamba on Aug. 21 last year 2007 has since remained pending before the Supreme Court for decision. On the other hand, AHRC noted that even before the five accused were arraigned, there have been repeated postponements to their scheduled arraignment and court hearings. Request for bail It added that the accused, in seeking for temporary liberty through a bail application, had to submit themselves for an arraignment procedure even without their pending petition for transfer of the hearing of their case resolved to avoid further delays in their case. They pleaded not guilty. "However, when their application for bail was heard on July 4 of this year, the scheduled afternoon hearing was once again postponed because the judge fell ill. The prosecution panel, too, has not been able to prepare for the said hearing. The next bail hearing, scheduled on July 11, also did not complete after the judge ordered for the suspension of the hearing because the accused legal counsel made an oral argument to, once again, seek the dismissal of the charges after he found them questionable in nature," it said. The court then ordered the accused legal counsel to submit their formal and written manifesto seeking dismissal on July 14. The legal counsel's manifesto was to be heard in court Friday. - GMANews.TV