Cops fail to catch leftist solon: Satur hides; are Teddy, Liza next?

Leftist party-list congressman Satur Ocampo is now the subject of a manhunt after police failed to catch him at home in Quezon City yesterday in connection with murder charges he is facing at the Regional Trial Court in Leyte.

The court ordered his arrest in connection with alleged mass murders in Inopacan town in Leyte more than 20 years ago as part of a communist New People's Army purge. Ocampo, who has been linked to the communist movement, has denied involvement in either the NPA or the murders.

Aside from Ocampo, three more leftist party-list lawmakers may be arrested soon if murder charges are filed against them with the Nueva Ecija provincial prosecutor's office, a human rights lawyer said.

Nere Colmenares of the Council for Defense for Civil Liberties said Reps. Liza Maza, Rafael Mariano and Teddy Casino, as well as Ocampo himself, are accused of involvement in the murders of Bayan Muna supporters in Bongabong, Nueva Ecija.

Speaking to reporters in Quezon City, Colmenares said the series of arrests and filing of cases against leftist party-list lawmakers could be part of a crackdown against the opposition in preparation for the implementaion of the anti-terror law, which takes effect after the May 14 elections.

Colmenares said the police raid on Ocampo's home was illegal because the police did not have a search warrant from a competent court. " The police only had a xerox of the arrest warrant, and they did not have a search warrant, " he said.

Before going into hiding, Ocampo, president of Bayan Muna, said the charges were filed by the government to prevent him from campaigning for the May 14 elections and to harass small left-wing parties seeking seats in Congress.

" This government is afraid of the presence of Bayan Muna in Congress, " he said.

His wife, Carolina Malay Ocampo, told reporters after the raid that about 20 police officers, most of them in plain clothes, rummaged through her husband's warehouse and bedroom, opened closets, searched under the bed and questioned her on his whereabouts.

" I told them my husband was not here, " she said. " They looked for my husband everywhere, even underneath our bed. I told them to give him some time to show up and prove his innocence. The only place they didn't look was under my skirt. "

Ocampo's wife said police also searched her brother's house and three of her neighbors' residences.

Her husband might be forced to rejoin the underground movement, criticizing government attempts to deny left-wing groups an active role in mainstream politics, she added.

Former senator Rene Saguisag, Dean Pacifino Agabin and lawyer Nelly Avena have questioned the legality of the arrest warrant against Ocampo on the ground that the supposed crime that happened 20 years ago had gone past the prescription period.

Saguisag said Ocampo could no longer be charged with crimes connected with rebellion that occurred before 1986 because he was already covered by a general amnesty ordered by the revolutionary government of then president Corazon Aquino.

Communist rebel leader Jose Maria Sison, co-accused with Ocampo and speaking from self-exile in the Netherlands yesterday denied he was involved in the killing of alleged government spies in Leyte in the 1980s.

In a statement, Sison described the murder charges as a patent lie and called the judge who issued the warrants of arrest against him, Ocampo, Luis Jalandoni and 50 other communist rebels " irresponsible " and a " helpless tool of the Arroyo regime and military " and who is " practically an ignoramus of the law. "

" Time and again I have denied the repeated false charge by the military that I am responsible for murders in Leyte from 1984 to 1986, " saying that he was in a maximum-security detention center in Fort Bonifacio in Makati from 1977 to 1985.

" After my release from military detention in March 1986, I concentrated on writing and speaking on national issues, organizing the People's Party ( Partido ng Bayan ) and teaching at the University of the Philippines, " he said.

" I left for abroad in August 1986 to make a lecture tour in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe. " He said his position as Communist Party of the Philippines chairman ended upon his capture by the military in 1977, which made it really impossible for him to sign an alleged order to kill people in Leyte.

" Like me, Satur Ocampo was in maximum security detention, " he said. ( Philippine Star News Service/JST )