2 solons question CHR chief’s links to left Lira Dalangin-Fernandez INQUIRER.net
July 30, 2009
MANILA, Philippines – Two lawmakers pressed Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Leila de Lima to declare whether or not she was related to the wife of exiled communist leader Jose Ma. Sison.
If the CHR chief was related to Juliet de Lima-Sison, this could influence the commission’s investigation into the alleged torture of a Filipino-American activist, allegedly at the hands of the military, said partylist Representatives Jovito Palparan of Bantay and Jun Alcover of the Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (Anad).
“I want to make some clarification. First, how is she related to the wife of Joma Sison… because I am now doubting the commission, this commission could be biased,” Alcover said.
Palparan said the CHR head’s silence on her relationship with the top communist leader’s wife left an “element of doubt and suspicion.”
Palparan, a retired Army general, was accused of being behind the murder and abduction of left-wing activists during his stint in the military.
Alcover also said De Lima should show some delicadeza and consider inhibiting from the CHR investigation.
Alcover said he received “raw information” that both De Lima and De Lima-Sison hail from the same village in Iriga City. He said De Lima’s father, Vicente, is the uncle of Juliet De Lima-Sison.
In the same news forum, Albay Representative Edcel Lagman played down the purported blood relations of the CHR chairperson with the communist leader’s wife.
“You can’t choose your relatives, but you can choose your advocacy and ideology,” Lagman said.
Alcover also said anew that he received a package containing a video tape and a letter that would prove that Filipino-American activist Melissa Roxas, who goes by the moniker of Ka Aya was a member of the New People’s Army (NPA).
Roxas has denied this allegation.
Alcover and Palparan said the CHR should expand its investigation on the Roxas case to include this new evidence, which could refute the Filipino-American’s claim that she was abducted and tortured by the military.
The letter in the package, which was sent by a wife of an NPA member, described Roxas as an NPA regular who might have been kidnapped by her comrades because they do not want her to leave the mountains, Alcover said.
Before the forum ended, the two also rushed to leave, because Alcover said he received a text message that two NPA members were “going down” to testify in the proceedings.
Representative Lorenzo Tañada III of Quezon province said it was up to the proper authorities to verify if Roxas was an NPA member.
Tañada, chairman of the committee on human rights, which conducted a public hearing on Roxas’ case Wednesday, said his committee was not in the position to judge whether or not Roxas was a communist guerilla.
What is important, he stressed, is for his committee to find out if there was abduction and torture, so it could push for the enactment of a law against torture.
Both chambers of Congress have passed on third reading the torture bill and would meet in bicameral committee meeting on August 5, Tañada said.
Lagman said there was no concrete evidence yet that the NPA members were behind the abduction and torture of Roxas.
“We are veering away from the very essence of what actually should be conducted and determined – the fact of torture, of abduction, and who actually are the culprits,” Lagman said.
