LEGAZPI CITY—MILITANT groups in the Bicol region on Tuesday decried what they said was the VIP treatment being received by former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante while a peasant leader continues to languish in jail on suspicion of rebellion.
Felix Paz, national council member of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and concurrent chairman of its Bicol chapter, said Randall Echanis, deputy secretary general of the KMP, is now in jail despite suffering from Bell’s palsy and chronic hypertension.
Echanis was arrested Jan. 28 this year by suspected military and police agents in ski masks and civilian clothes, at the Builders Training Center in Barangay Calumangan, Bago City, Negros Occidental.
He was at a conference in preparation for the National Rural Congress (NRC) being called for by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
Echanis was accused of membership in the Communist Party of the Philippines central committee. Along with CPP founder Jose Ma. Sison and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, he was accused of 15 counts of multiple murder in connection with the so-called Hilongos, Leyte mass graves.
“While Joc-joc is being pampered in St. Luke’s Hospital, many peasants are wasting in jail for crimes they did not commit,” Paz said.
Bolante is the alleged architect of the so-called fertilizer fund scam, which involves the supposed diversion of P728-million in Department of Agriculture funds to the 2004 campaign of President Macapagal-Arroyo.
Bolante returned to the country last week after being deported from the United States. He was served a Senate arrest order immediately upon arrival but remains confined at the St. Luke’s Medical Center, where he is considered under the chamber’s custody.
Paz said Echanis was instrumental in gathering data from farmers when the KMP testified in the Senate probe of the fertilizer fund scam.
“It is sad to note that many peasant leaders and a journalist who bared the scam have been killed or abducted like Marlene Esperat, Perla Rodriguez and Nilo Arado, and then we see Joc-joc as if he is a lamb that has to be protected,” Paz said. Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon
INQUIRER.net
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