Candon City—Three leaders of a peasant organization in Ilocos will voluntarily surrender to court on July 17, 2007 to clear their names on their alleged involvement after the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Ilocos Sur accused them of having alleged links to the raid of the Municipal Police Station in Sta. Lucia, Ilocos Sur on September 2003. On October 28, 2003, the Ilocos Sur CIDG team transmitted Records of Investigation to the Office of the Prosecution Service in Vigan City and implicated Julian Daoa (Chairman Emeritus of Solidarity of Peasants against Exploitation [STOP Exploitation] and currently Secretary General of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN-Ilocos), Leonardo Sabalo (Vice Chairperson of STOP Exploitation) and Rogelio Vilog (STOP Exploitation-Ilocos Sur Leader) and three other members of STOP Exploitation in the September 15, 2003 raid of the New People’s Army (NPA) at the Sta. Lucia, Ilocos Sur Municipal Police Station. The Alfredo Cesar Command (ACC) of the CPP-NPA assumed the responsibility for the raid and burning of the police station as per statement circulated in various media outfits in 2003. The Office of the Provincial Prosecutor issued a subpoena for respondents but it was not served as the subpoenas were address at Cervantes, Ilocos Sur. The leaders and organizers of STOP Exploitation never received any summon. More so, the CIDG Provincial Office (PO) endorsed the filing of multiple charges against Daoa, Sabalo, Vilog and three other members of STOP Exploitation with Murder (3 counts), Robbery, Arson, Direct Assault upon a Person in Authority and Serious Physical Injuries to which Judges Gabino Balbin Jr. and Policarpio Martinez issued warrants of arrest in 2006 on Regional Trial Court Branches 23 and 71. The Turn over of Peasant leaders to the court will be assisted by their counsel, Atty. Robert Tudayan to prove their innocence and to prevent their lives from imminent danger as per reports to IHRA that they have been constantly receiving death threats. STOP Exploitation, an affiliate of the national Peasant Organization Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), views the accusations as baseless and purely fabricated as part of the Arroyo administration efforts to trample political dissent and her critics. According to Zaldy Alfiler, secretary general of STOP Exploitation, said that these accusations are baseless. “The government is aimed at criminalizing peasant activists as part of its counter-insurgency program OPLAN BANTAY LAYA (OBL). Leaders and organizers are killed, abducted or put behind bars to quell the people’s movement from exposing its fascist character,” he added. Daoa, Sabalo and Vilog will be detained at the Provincial Jail in Vigan City, Ilocos Sur upon their surrender.
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