With eight days before the May 9 elections, Bulatlat takes a look at the senatorial candidates’ statements on the ATA as well as their stance on peace talks and on political prisoners.
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) said that the court's findings "only prove how State forces are hell-bent at quelling the exercise of labor rights being promoted by trade union organizers such as Dennise Velasco as well as activists in general.”
“He must be immediately afforded legal representation. We enjoin all democratic forces to close ranks and raise the demand for Ka Esteban to be immediately released."
“Sometimes, the government is forced to do something depending on the resistance of the people outside the congress. “Even if the fight is hard inside, we can make it work through the support of the masses outside.”
National Security Adviser andNTF-ELCACvice chair Hermogenes Esperon Jr. MANILA - The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on Sunday expressed its disappointment over the decision of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) to acquit communist group leaders for their role in the Inopacan Massacre which took place in the 1980s. "We are deeply saddened and dismayed with the news that the Manila RTC Branch 32, under Presiding Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina, has granted the demurrers to evidence resulting in the acquittal of known communists, namely former Bayan Muna representative Satur Ocampo; National Democratic Front (NDF) consultants Vicente Ladlad, Rafael Baylosis and Adelberto Silva, among others, two for the perpetration of at least 15 summary executions in the killing fields by the NPA in Sapang Dako, Inopacan, Leyte in the 1980s," NTF-ELCAC vice chair Hermogenes Esperon Jr., who is also National Security Adviser, said. He said the murder case was