News Release
January 30, 2008
References: Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, chairman of KMP and president ANAKPAWIS party list
 
Arrested KMP leader, lawyer cry torture
KMP asks CBCP to help arrested leader to be freed immediately.
 
            The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) issued a plea to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to help in the immediate and unconditional release of KMP deputy secretary general for external affairs Randall Echanis, who was illegally arrested, detained and transferred by government forces last Monday and yesterday.
 
            According to Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, chairman of KMP and concurrent president of ANAKPAWIS party list, “Ka Randy was there to help in the preparations of farm workers and agricultural workers for the National Rural Congress (NRC) being called for by the CBCP and to show their support for the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) or House Bill 3059. It is but right and moral for the CBCP to at least issue a statement calling for his immediate release,”
 
            “All Ka Randy was doing was for the welfare of the peasant masses and for them to have their own land to till. It is also in consonance with the Church’s call. The Macapagal-Arroyo regime is obviously trying once again  create a chilling effect on its critics and organizations working for genuine pro-poor change, like genuine agrarian reform,” said Mariano.
            Meanwhile, KMP deputy secretary general Randall Echanis cried torture from his police and military custodians from Bago City in Negros Occidental to Hilongos town in Leyte . Ka Randy who was arrested in Bago City , Negros Occidental on Monday was forcibly driven out at around 3:00 in the afternoon from the Bago City Jail to Bacolod City on Tuesday because police says that they will present him in a press conference.   
            "Upon reaching Bacolod City , there were no media but soldiers in full battle gear and four helicopters, " Echanis said adding: "I was forced to board a helicopter while my other companions were bodily prevented to go with me. Only, Sr. Pat Fox of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines managed to go with me."
 
            The choppers stopped at Mactan Airbase and the soldiers keep on insisting to leave Sr. Fox in Cebu . Still, Sr. Fox asserted to go with Echanis to Hilongos. The KMP leader was presented to Hilongos Regional Trial Court Judge Ephraim Abando who ordered that Echanis be transferred to the Leyte Provincial Jail "in accordance with the rules" for being a "high-profile and high-risk detainee." Echanis, Fox, and his lawyer Jobert Pahilga calling from Manila asked the police to defer the transfer until Wednesday morning because it is getting late.
            An hour before midnight, upon instructions of PNP regional legal officer George Almadin, combined police and military elements led by Hilongos police chief Capt. Landilino Katangkatang and Col. Mario Lacurum of the 43rd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army moved to transfer Echanis to the Provincial Jail with four six-by-six trucks of military and an armored personnel carrier.
             "This is torture of a new type," says Pahilga. "My client and his family were subjected to deceit, intense pressure tantamount to mental and psychological torture. It's worse than physical torture." Pahilga added that his client suffer hypertension.
            "We are now thinking of filing appropriate charges against the military and police officers," Pahilga warned.
            For her part, Echanis' wife, Erlinda, assailed "the police and military's use of excessive force and resources" against his husband.
            "This is exactly the reason why Ka Randy continuously struggle for the poor. This government is wasting people's money in the political persecution and worse extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearance of people fighting for their rights," Erlinda stressed.
             Echanis was arrested on Monday by military and police elements wearing bonnets (ski masks) and in civilian clothes, at the Builders Training Center in Barangay Calumangan, Bago City, Negros Occidental,  while attending a consultation with farmers and farmworkers belonging to the National Federation of Sugar Workers and Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA)  on the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (House Bill 3059) and in preparation for the National Rural Congress to be spearheaded by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
             The KMP leader was accused as a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Central Committee. Along with CPP founder Jose Ma. Sison and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, Echanis was accused of multiple murder for 15 counts in connection with the so-called mass graves discovered in Hilongos, Leyte. He is presently detained at the Bago City Jail. Echanis maintained that from 1983- 1984 he was detained under solitary confinement and held incommunicado in Camp Aguinaldo . Even his close relatives and lawyers were not allowed to visit him. From 1984 to 1986, he was transferred to Camp Adduru , Regional Command 2 Stockade in Tuguegarao, Cagayan until his release in March 1986 after People Power 1. # # #