Satur camp hails as victory SC order to let him stay in Manila

A lawyer of Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo hailed yesterday as a "victory" the Supreme Court order preventing his client’s transfer to Leyte, although he was disappointed that the lawmaker’s detention at Manila police headquarters had been "indefinitely" extended.

Lawyer Neri Colmenares said he was disappointed because the government was not prepared to argue their case and glad that the SC had preempted a police plan to whisk Ocampo to Leyte.

"However, Satur should not suffer continuing detention because of government’s inability to argue," he said. "The fact that the Solicitor General is not ready to argue shows that the evidence is weak and difficult to defend."

In Davao City, hundreds of militants from Southern Mindanao marched yesterday through the main roads to press the government to release Ocampo and Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran from detention.

Beltran has been detained for over 391 days at the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City on charges of rebellion.

Members of Anakpawis and Bayan Muna were among those who picketed the office of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group at Camp Leonor in Davao City at noon yesterday.

The rallyists later marched to Freedom Park, where they called for the unconditional release of Beltran and Ocampo.

Bayan Muna Rep. Joel Virador said they would continue to hold mass actions in key cities until the two lawmakers are freed.

"We will continue to intensify our protest until such time that the two are released," he said.

Virador said the government appears to be unprepared and ill-equipped in "hurling trumped-up charges" against Ocampo.

"The trumped-up charges, the black propaganda and relentless assaults against the lives of our members and leaders all throughout the country show the Arroyo regime’s long-revealed schemes to silence us," he said.

The Armed Forces is bent on preventing progressive party-list groups from getting seats in Congress in the May 14 elections, Virador said.

"The continued detention of Ka Bel (Beltran) and the recent arrest and detention of Ka Satur (Ocampo) only show that the stolen regime of (President) Gloria Arroyo is fearful of the people’s growing support for progressive party-lists in Congress," said Editha Duterte, Anakpawis Southern Mindanao spokeswoman.

On Thursday, the SC ordered the Manila police to keep Ocampo in their custody "until further orders from the Court" as it granted his request to attend the oral arguments on his petition questioning his arrest on March 30.

On Wednesday, the Office of the Solicitor General asked the SC to extend from March 21 to April 5 the 15-day period for the government to comment on Ocampo’s petition for certiorari and prohibition.

"(Ocampo’s petition) raised several factual matters requiring verification from and coordination with other government offices to ascertain their veracity," read the OSG petition.

The location of the government offices poses difficulty on its part to immediately secure needed information "to enable the respondents to respond intelligently to the petition," thus, "further time" is necessary, OSG added.

The SC reset the oral arguments to March 30 but ordered the OSG to submit its comment on Ocampo’s petition by March 28. – Katherine Adraneda, Edith Regalado