Press Release
November 10, 2008

Case of Batasan 5 taken up by IPU human rights panel

The case of the Batasan 5 was one of the complaints of human rights violations lodged by parliamentarians against nine governments tackled in the recent 119th general assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva.

This was mentioned by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban), a member of the five-man IPU committee on the human rights of parliamentarians (CHRP) in the joint report of the Senate delegation that took part in the IPU conference.

The IPU-CHRP, according to the joint report, has asked the Philippine government to respond to the complaint of party-list Reps. Satur Ocampo, Rafael Mariano, Liza Maza and Teodoro Casino over the filing of rebellion charges against them which, they said, were intended to harass them in reprisal for their constant criticisms of the abuses of the Arroyo administration.

The committee also called on the government to provide fair trial for the complaining sectoral representatives, who all belong to progressive, cause-oriented groups.

Rep. Mariano testified before the CHRP to amplify their allegations that "old criminal charges had been dredged from long ago to harass" him, Ocampo, Casino, Mariano and Maza.

The late labor leader and Rep. Crispin Beltran was one of the complainants in the case. But when he died of a freak accident several months ago, his complaint was considered closed.

Pimentel said that since he had to inhibit himself from cases involving the Philippines in accordance with IPU rules, he relied on the report of the human rights committee.

During the IPU assembly, he said the members of the CHRP went over the complaints of 239 parliamentarians in 19 countries, many of which had been filed long ago and others were entirely new.

The complaints involved killings, frustrated murders, disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detention, abductions and arbitrary expulsions of members of parliaments and legislatures.

Pimentel said that in certain cases, the CHRP members had to do on-site visitation and investigations in the countries involved. For instance, he said they went last September to Indonesia in connection with the slaying of a member of parliament and confiscation of the properties of another.

Aside from Pimentel, the other members of the Senate delegation to the IPU confab were Senate President Manuel Villar and Senators Pia Cayetano (president of the IPU-Committee of Women Parliamentarians, Rodolfo Biazon and Gregorio Honasan.

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