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NEWS
RELEASE
September 18, 2006
KA BEL STRIKES BACK:
Files countercharges vs Lomibao, Zuno, et al before Ombudsman
Detained Anakpawis (AP) Rep. Crispin Beltran today filed a case against
his captors before the Office of the Ombudsman, charging former PNP
Director-General Arturo Lomibao, several PNP officials, his captors, city
and state prosecutors at the Office of the Ombudsman for violation of his
parliamentary immunity from arrest and for arbitrary detention.
Named respondents alongside Lomibao were P/Csupt. Wilfredo D.V. Dulay,
Sr., P/Ssupt. Zoilo Madrazo Lachica Jr., P/Supt. Perfecto R. Marin, Police
Chief Inspector Rino V. Corpuz, Police Insp. Honesto G. Gaton, SPO1 Arnold
J. Casumpang; Quezon City Prosecutor Claro Arellano, First Asst.
Prosecutor Meynardo Bautista, Second Asst. Prosecutor Mercedes Peņamora,
Asst. Prosecutor Ben dela Cruz; and Department of Justice (DOJ)
Prosecutors Emmanuel Velasco, Rosalina Aquino, Aileen Marie Gutierrez,
Irwin Maraya, Maria Cristina Rilloraza, and Chief State Prosecutor Richard
Anthony D. Fadullon, and Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito R. Zuno.
Beltran, escorted by the PNP, went to the Office of the Ombudsman to
personally file the charges at 10 a.m today. He was allowed by the Makati
Regional Trial Court 150 to temporarily leave the Philippine Heart Center
(PHC) where he is detained, in order to file the case.
"This complaint is being filed for violation of my parliamentary immunity,
which is punisheable under Article 145 of the Revised Penal Code," Beltran
said. In his complaint, Beltran said that first he was illegally arrested
without a warrant and while the Congress was in session. When Beltran's
lawyers asked his captors for the basis of his arrest, they were shown an
21-year old warrant for inciting to rebellion, in a case which has already
been been archived and effectively dismissed by QC RTC.
To cover up for their blunder and to detain him further, his captors and
the other respondents conspired to concoct another case against him, this
time for inciting to sedition which is punishable by the maximum penalty
of six years and is thus covered by his parliamentary immunity from arrest
guaranteed under Article VI, Section 11 of the Constitution, Beltran
explained.
Beltran also charged the officials for arbitrarily detaining him "for more
than eighteen (18) hours before the Information against me for alleged
inciting to sedition was filed [at the Quezon City Municipal Trial
Court]". "Remarkably, and as the records bear out, I was unlawfully
arrested without a warrant at 10 A.M. on 25 February 2006, but it was only
on 27 February 2006 at 2:45 P.M. that the Information charging me with
inciting to sedition was filed in court," Beltran noted.
Beltran, who, while under indefinite detention for the alleged crime of
inciting to sedition was subjected by the DOJ to another invalid inquest
proceeding for another fabricated crime of rebellion, asserted that "the
charge of rebellion against me was purely an afterthought by the PNP and
the DOJ after realizing that the charge of inciting to sedition would not
prosper and would not be sufficient to detain me for as long as they want
to"
Beltran also questioned Gen. Lomibao's refusal to release him despite
release order issued by QC MTC Branch 43 Presiding Judge Evangeline
Marigomen last March 13, 2006. Marigomen ordered the PNP to release
Beltran after the prosecution failed to "forward any valid
counter-argument to counter [Beltran's] parliamentary immunity from
arrest".
Beltran's lawyers formally wrote to Lomibao, asserting that the QC MTC's
release order be implemented immediately. Lomibao however, through Atty.
Wilfredo Dulay Sr., replied that it could not enforce Beltran's release
"in the absence of any court order on the rebellion case". "Gen. Lomibao's
argument in refusing to release me is simply ridiculous, if not a sheer
prostitution of our laws in the name of political persecution against the
perceived enemies of the Arroyo government," Beltran said.
Beltran was also accompanied by a protest caravan organized by the Free Ka
Bel Movement (FKBM), an alliance calling for the detained solon's
immediate release. The caravan held a short program outside the
Ombudsman's Office for the duration of the filing, and escorted Beltran
back to the PHC. The caravan proceeded to hold a short program in front of
the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) beside the PHC, in
protest against the Arroyo administration's continuing political
repression against activists and progressive parliamentarians. ##
From
the Office of Anakpawis Representative Crispin B. Beltran
Lisa Ito, Media Officer (+63)927.796.7006
Tel. # (+632) 931-6615 Email: crispinbeltran@gmail.com
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