AFP: We will respect Aquino’s decision on Morong 43

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) declared yesterday that it will respect any decision from President Benigno Aquino III regarding the so-called Morong 43, as long as it is “for the benefit of the majority." “The Armed Forces is obliged to respect the decision of the commander-in-chief, or for that matter, our courts. We have done our best. We feel that it is now [in] the hands of the authorities to decide," AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta said in a press briefing. “If it would [be] for the benefit of the bigger majority, the Armed Forces will certainly, being professional, respect this decision," added Mabanta. Last February, 43 health workers were arrested in Morong, Rizal on suspicion of being New People’s Army trainees, and charged with the illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Except for five members of the group who were transferred to Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal, the rest are detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig. The military has said that the Morong 43 were being trained on bomb-making when a combined AFP-police team raided the private farmhouse where they were staying. Health groups, however, have maintained that the 43 are community health workers and doctors who were conducting a health skills training in the farmhouse when they were “illegally arrested and arbitrarily detained." Mabanta made his pronouncement after two members of the group — Judilyn Oliveros and Ma. Mercedes Castro, both new mothers nursing infants born in detention— wrote Aquino to ask for their release, because their situation is not conducive to the care of their babies. A Morong court has recently placed Oliveros under hospital arrest for the next three months, allowing her to be transferred to confinement in a room at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in order to breastfeed her baby, born on July 22. (See related story: Court OKs hospital arrest for Morong 43 detainee) Over the past few weeks, several prominent groups and personalities have joined calls for the immediate release of the Morong 43. They include several former secretaries of the Department of Health; the dean and professors of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine; a US-based international group of lawyers; and several lawmakers in the House of Representatives. Mabanta noted that there are two scenarios by which the Morong 43 could be released: granting of amnesty by the president, or being cleared by the courts where their cases are pending. Asked if the military opposed amnesty, Mabanta only said, “We have been consulted and we have been giving inputs." Aquino has said that he will leave the case of the Morong 43 to the courts, even as he recently granted amnesty to some 300 soldiers facing charges of mutiny and other rebellious acts. Meanwhile, though Mabanta is not definitively saying that the morale of the troops will be dampened if suspected communists are granted amnesty, it is a “possibility," he added. The military has been at the forefront of the government’s counter-insurgency drive for over four decades, drawing criticisms from local and international groups for reported human rights violations in their campaign, especially during the term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.—With Larissa Mae Suarez/JV, GMANews.TV