‘STOP RED-TAGGING’
Activist: We are not NPA ‘fronts’
BY RANIE S. AZUE
BACOLOD City – The military has been urged to stop tagging
cause-oriented organizations as fronts of the New Peoples’
Army (NPA).
According to Romulo Bitoon, provincial coordinator
of Makabayang Koalisyon ng Mamamayan (Makabayan), the “red-tagging”
of cause-oriented group members has put their lives in grave
danger.
Bitoon said he was accused by the military
as a high-ranking Communist Party of the Philippines/NPA official.
He was arrested for committing arson, an accusation
which, he said, was just “the military’s imagination.”
This was after a transloading station in Escalante
was burned by alleged members of NPA.
Intelligence operatives of the Negros Occidental
Provincial Police Office seized him on April 5 in front of
a restaurant along San Juan Street here where he just met
Akap Bata Party-list members.
He said he was detained in Negros Occidental
Provincial Jail like an ordinary criminal.
He recently freed from detention after paying the P150,000
bail.
Bitoon revealed to Panay News that his name
was included in the warrant of arrest issued by Judge Katherine
Go of San Carlos Regional Trial Court.
Atty. Raul Bitoon and Bayan Muna Representative
Atty. Neri Colmenarez, Bitoon’s legal counsels, claimed
that Judge Go erred for issuing the warrant of arrest without
any preliminary investigation. They immediately filed a petition
to fix bail for the charge (which is non-bailable by nature).
Bitoon said the granting of their petition
only proves that the charge against him is weak.
The prosecutor, he revealed, failed to present
any witness or evidence to prove his involvement to the crime.
Bitoon hopes the charge against him will be
discussed since complainants did not show up since the trial
started.
“My family suffered discomfort, trauma
and financial burden because of the malicious arrest.
Even the reduced bail was too much for my
family that my sister and brother abroad have to sacrifice
not coming home just to contribute,” Bitoon said./PN
|
