Bayan Muna mulls charges vs Gonzales

The militant party list group Bayan Muna yesterday demanded a public apology from National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, who earlier accused the party list group of diverting P60 million from its funds to the New People’s Army.

Bayan Muna is also considering filing libel charges against Gonzales and calling for his resignation.

"Mr. Gonzales should apologize to Bayan Muna and resign. He has no business being the national security adviser if all he can peddle are baseless and malicious allegations based on sloppy intelligence rumors. He is an insult to the intelligence community," said Bayan Muna nominee Teddy Casiño.

Casiño yesterday led some 50 Bayan Muna members in a picket at the main gate of the office of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) along V. Luna Road in Quezon City. The protesters voluntarily and peacefully dispersed at 11 a.m. under the watchful eyes of NICA agents and Quezon City policemen who were deployed in the vicinity.

Gonzales earlier said that Bayan Muna Reps. Satur Ocampo, Crispin Beltran and Liza Maza had diverted some P60 million of its funds to the NPA since 2001.

"I challenge Mr. Gonzales to identify a single project that has been used for the benefit of the NPA," said Casiño.

He explained that of Bayan Muna’s P325 million congressional allotment for infrastructure projects as of December last year, P147 million went to the construction of multi-purpose halls and day care centers; P83 million went to construction of bridges and farm-to-market roads and P60 million went to the construction of school buildings.

Some P40 million were also spent for medical assistance to indigent patients confined in government hospitals and some P30 million went to the purchase of educational materials for public schools.

In a statement, Ocampo emphasized that Bayan Muna has faithfully observed the disbursements of Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) for its projects to help the poor nationwide.

"All that Bayan Muna does is identify and submit the projects for the consideration of the appropriations committee of the DBM," he said, adding that their books are open to everybody.

Meanwhile, the militant fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA) has accused Gonzales of being part of a demolition job against militant party list groups.

"He is doing the dirty job for the Macapagal-Arroyo clique and its syndicate in the military to stop pro-people groups from bringing their representatives to Congress under the party-list system," said Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA president. — With James Mananghaya