‘Batasan 5’ ready to be arrested on rebellion raps

The five left-leaning lawmakers who holed themselves up in the House of Representatives to avoid arrest for their alleged involvement in a coup in February will go with police once warrants for their arrest are served.

The so-called "Batasan Six" — party-list Reps. Crispin Beltran, Liza Maza, Joel Virador, Rafael Mariano, Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño — were charged with rebellion yesterday along with former senator Gregorio Honasan and several other people by the Department of Justice before the Makati City regional trial court.

Beltran was arrested shortly after President Arroyo declared a state of national emergency on Feb. 24 to counter what she called a "tactical alliance" between rogue military officers and communist rebels and their civilian backers.

The other five party-list lawmakers have been seeking haven from arrest in the House, citing parliamentary immunity.

Ocampo, of Bayan Muna, said they will accept the arrest warrant once it is served.

Casiño, also of Bayan Muna, said they could no longer claim parliamentary immunity once the warrant is delivered through Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and accepted. De Venecia is currently on a trip to Europe.

"We will not resist arrest. We cannot resist (arrest)," Casiño told reporters in a briefing.

But Ocampo said the police cannot enforce the warrant until De Venecia returns.

The militant lawmakers assailed the indictment handed down by the Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors, noting it failed to include their defense, composed of House records and video footage, which could have exculpated them of the non-bailable political offense.

"This is a shotgun-type indictment. They did not even specify the overt acts. This is procedurally and substantially flawed, and it violates our right to due process," Ocampo complained.

Casiño said the case is "ridiculous" as it described "no particular acts" and was just a "blanket authority" for government to declare that rebellion is a continuing crime, from its inception in 1969 up to the present.

"I didn’t have anything to do with the Plaza Miranda bombing," he said, saying he was only two years old when suspected communist rebels attacked a Liberal Party rally with grenades in August 1971.

"This is persecution by political affiliation," he said. "Using the DOJ’s logic, then everyone who was associated with the left in the past three decades should be charged with rebellion. This includes Mike Defensor, Bobby Tiglao and the President herself who admitted harboring wounded NPAs in her house."

Ocampo said they will ask the court to suspend proceedings while they question the charges.

Among those charged with the six leftist legislators and Honasan were two retired military colonels, at least four military officers and communist guerrilla leaders.

Honasan, a former Army colonel involved in coup attempts against former President Corazon Aquino in the late 1980s, went into hiding when he was implicated while some of the suspected military officers have been detained.

In a 52-page document filed before the Makati regional trial court, senior state prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco said the left-wing lawmakers and self-exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison had "established a tactical alliance" with Honasan and the military officers.

Authorities suspect that left-leaning party-list lawmakers in the House are funneling government money to the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA).

The United States and the European Union view the CPP and the NPA as terrorist organizations.

Sison objects to the terror label, arguing that the CPP is a legitimate political party, decriminalized after the 1986 ouster of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

He had earlier publicly backed a military coup as the only way to remove Mrs. Arroyo, who is under pressure for allegedly cheating in the 2004 presidential election. — With AP