Solon prevented from speaking to the media
CMFR/Philippines—Members of the press were prevented from interviewing detained Bayan Muna (Nation First) Representative Satur Ocampo by his police custodians, who claimed that media interviews would be risky for Ocampo, Inquirer.net reported on 21 March 2007. Ocampo and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) have protested the ban.
The 67-year old solon was arrested on 16 March 2007 and is presently detained at the Manila Police District (MPD) Headquarters. Ocampo, who was a business reporter for seven years in the 1960s for a national daily, was ordered arrested by a court in Hilongos, Leyte for his alleged involvement in the purge of communist rebels in 1984-85 in that province. Leyte is in the Eastern Visayas group of islands south of Manila.
Ocampo has steadfastly declared his innocence and accused the Arroyo government of concocting the charges to prevent him from campaigning for the May 10 mid-term elections.
“I am protesting this ban by my custodians against media interviews. I should not be prevented from speaking,” Ocampo was quoted in the Inquirer report.
The NUJP described the ban as “high-handed and arbitrary.”
NUJP said “reporters do not pose any security threat for Ocampo and there is no link between the lawmaker’s exercise to free speech with dangers to his person.”
Ocampo said journalists had been waiting outside the MPD headquarters waiting to get a clearance from his custodians for an interview.
Senior Superintendent Danilo Abarsoza, director of the Manila Police District, claimed they were only assuring the safety of Ocampo.
“There is a security risk. We don’t want to jeopardize security…and what’s there to ask? All the questions that should be asked have probably been asked,” Abarsoza said.
Abarzosa’s comment, “what’s there to ask?”, said NUJP “is not just fatuous; it is dangerous because we have a police officer taking over the news judgment functions of editors and reporters. This, in effect, is prior restraint on media.”
Police have recently dug up the remains of what they said were victims of communist purges in the 1980s located in Kaulisihan village, Inopacan, Leyte.
Ocampo said he was detained in a military prison at the time the mass execution of communists allegedly took place. Martial law was in place in the Philippines from 1972 to 1986.
“I was arrested on January 14, 1976 and was under military custody until May 5, 1985. This renders impossible the claim that I was in Leyte in 1984 to supervise the purported purge,” Ocampo said.
Ocampo was detained and tried by a military court from 1976-1985 for rebellion, of which he was never found guilty. His lawyers also claim that he is covered by amnestry proclamations by Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos.
Ocampo’s party, Bayan Muna, which has demanded the resignation of Presidenty Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for alleged electoral fraud in 2004, has led the party list elections since 2001. Surveys say it is likely to repeat the feat this year.
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