131 SOLONS FILE HISTORIC BILL VS GOV'T ABDUCTIONS

By Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer
Last updated 03:05am (Mla time) 08/29/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- The agonizing search for activist Jonas Burgos and the two missing University of the Philippines students Tuesday got a boost courtesy of a bill penalizing state agents implicated in involuntary disappearances.

In what was described as "historic," House Bill No. 2263 is coauthored by 131 lawmakers, a number way above the needed majority to ratify a measure in the House of Representatives.

All five Deputy Speakers and Majority Leader Arthur Defensor have signed up to coauthor the bill, according to principal author Rep. Satur Ocampo of the militant Bayan Muna.

Crossing party lines, the 131 lawmakers sought the maximum penalty of reclusion perpetua -- life imprisonment -- for anyone who would be found guilty of violating the "Act Defining and Penalizing the Crime of Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance."

Ocampo and five other militant lawmakers Tuesday said the bill should face no grave difficulty in the House, considering the overwhelming support it had received on paper.

The House bill was ratified last year, but the Senate failed to pass its version, according to Ocampo.

"Since the majority of the members in the House are already coauthors, we can expedite the process and push the bill in the plenary," Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casi?o said in a press conference.

Casi?o said the proposed measure would help the cause of Burgos -- son of the late publisher and press freedom icon Jose "Joe" Burgos -- and Karen Empe?o and Sherlyn Cadapan, the two UP students allegedly abducted by the military more than a year ago.

Brothers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo, who reportedly escaped from military detention two weeks ago, have said they had seen the UP students at Camp Tecson in Limay, Bataan.

74 cases in '06

Empe?o and Cadapan were still alive at that time, according to the two farmers.

Speaking in the same press conference, Gabriela party-list Rep. Liza Maza urged Congress to do its part in putting a stop to the growing problem of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

Since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed office in 2001, at least 183 cases of involuntary disappearances had been recorded, according to Ocampo.

His group recorded the highest number of cases at 74 in 2006. In the first quarter of this year alone, he said there were already 22 victims of enforced disappearances.

Noting that the Supreme Court was already drafting the writ of amparo (protection), Maza said "Congress should also show political will to address the problem by ratifying the bill."

The writ of amparo has been hailed by human rights groups as a proactive position by the high tribunal. It aims to keep law enforcers from hiding behind the cloak of denial in the face of petitions for a writ of habeas corpus.

International convention

Ocampo said HB 2263 was in line with the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Signed on Dec. 20, 2006, the convention defines enforced disappearance as "the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law."

"The phenomenon of enforced or involuntary disappearance has largely been left undefined, unchecked and unpunished in our country," Ocampo wrote in the bill's explanatory note.

"No specific offense related to enforced or involuntary disappearance has been recognized despite its systematic occurrence for the past 30 years."