Human rights chair related to Joma's wife?

While it was a holiday in Cebu yesterday in celebration of the 440th anniversary of the Province of Cebu, we attended a hastily called presscon in Baseline Restaurant by the Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD) led by its Partylist Rep. Pastor “Jun” Alcover Jr. The issue at hand was about the case filed by that Fil-Am Melissa Roxas before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on her alleged torture by the military. Unfortunately this issue was sidelined by the passing of former Pres. Corazon “Tita” Cory Aquino. Now that she’s been buried, we are taking up this issue.

My readers know that since day one when I became a journalist, I chose to be an anti-communist advocate because from my own readings, I have known too well that Communism is anti-God or anti-religion and therefore, it shouldn’t even exist in a God-fearing nation like the Philippines. But we all know that wherever there are good things around, evil always lurks in a corner waiting to pounce on the unwary and the innocent.

What Jun Alcover told us was that at the height of the hearing for Melissa Roxas before CHR Chairperson Lilia de Lima, Jun pointed to the chair that Melissa has been tagged as a member of the New People’s Army (NPA) through a video they released. But the CHR Chair pointed out that this revelation was irrelevant to the case at bar. Why should the membership of Melissa as an NPA be irrelevant? Aren’t the NPA the enemy of the people? Why is the CHR Chair acting strangely?

What I found quite disturbing was the revelation of Jun Alcover. He asked Chairperson de Lima what her relationship was to a certain Juliet de Lima, the wife of Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) Head Jose Maria Sison. Call that question a bit out of line, but the CHR head refused to honor Alcover with an answer and instead threw a question back to him saying, “What if we’re related, does this make me a Communist?”

There is no question that the position of the chairperson of the CHR must be above board. This is the first time I have heard that a chairman of the CHR is related by blood to the number two person in the CPP. On this alone, I suggested to Alcover that they should now ask President Arroyo to change chairman de Lima, or if this position is a constitutional body, find ways to impeach her. Let’s face it, the Communists almost always wins in the propaganda war against the military for the simple reason that many of us, especially in the media are just too sympathetic to the cause of the CPP.

Back to the presscon. After this revelation, Jun Alcover showed us the letter that a member of the NPA sent to him via LBC with a corresponding video CD that showed what I would like to believe is Melissa Roxas in the mountain fastness of Aurora Province. I’ve been anti-communist for most of my 23 years as a journalist but it was only yesterday that I saw an actual unadulterated video footage of life in the mountains with the NPAs in a video taken by their own members.

Looking at the photo of Melissa Roxas in the newspaper and watching the video tells me that this is one and the same person. Melissa Roxas in my book is a liar who goes to town to discredit the military by accusing them of torturing her, which is mere circumstantial evidence. In all the years of fighting the Communists, we have come to know that whenever their members get tired of their harsh life in the mountains and want to go home or end their life with the NPA, they almost always get killed in the process. It is called a “Purge” which is why there are so many mass graves in the hills of Leyte and a few right here in our own backyard in Cebu City.

This is the truth. If you want to read a story about a rebel returnee, get a copy of the book entitled, “To Suffer Thy Comrades” by Robert Francis Garcia who wrote his real life story. His book was praised by Sheila Coronel of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalists (PCIJ) when she wrote “This book sheds light on the darkest and deepest secrets of the revolutionary movement.”

So was Melissa Roxas really tortured by the military or was she tortured by her own friends within the NPA movement so she could blame it on the military? All we can say that it was another classic NPA propaganda aimed to discredit the military. As Jun Alcover would say, “It was a plot by Satur Ocampo and his friends to discredit the human rights record under the Arroyo Administration, so they could march Melissa Roxas as the President was making her SONA.” But what I really found disturbing is that our CHR seems to be taking the side of the liars who seek to destroy our established authority. The CHR must be chaired by a person who is not linked or related by blood to the top bosses of the CPP-NPA, least we suspect that they are communist sympathizers and therefore, the military stands no chance!

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