GMA faces suit for political killings under her watch

Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been slapped with a P5.4-million damage suit for the alleged extrajudicial killings of five Protestant church members and the alleged abduction of another one from 2003 to 2006. The suit was filed by the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) through its General Secretary and Executive Officer Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza with the Quezon City Regional Trial Court on Thursday. The UCCP is asking the court to order Arroyo to pay the organization P1 million for moral damages; P500,000 each for the relatives of the six alleged victims, or a total of P3 million, also for moral damages; P500,000 for exemplary damages; and P300,000 each for litigation and attorneys' fees. Another plaintiff, Pastor Berlin Guerrero, is also seeking P300,000 moral damages for his alleged illegal arrest, detention and the torture he claimed to have suffered at the hands of government soldiers. A report on GMA News' "24 Oras" said the Arroyo camp has withheld comment until it sees a copy of the complaint.

Commander-in-chief In an 18-page complaint, Marigza said they filed the case against Arroyo for being the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) when the alleged extra-judicial killings were committed. Marigza said that during the Arroyo administration, the military implemented a counter-insurgency campaign — Oplan Bantay Laya — that sought to identify organizations that were critical of the government’s policies. He noted that the UCCP had been tagged by the military as a sectoral front of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The plaintiffs added that it was during the implementation of said campaign that many of their church members became victims of extra-judicial killings allegedly committed by the military. Among these alleged victims were Joel Baclao, UCCP Disaster Relief Program Coordinator in Bicol who was shot dead on Nov. 10, 2004; UCCP Pastor Edison Lapuz of Tacloban City, who was killed on May 12, 2003; Noel Capulong, chairperson of UCCP’s Christian Witness Program in Calamba, who was killed on May 27, 2006; UCCP Pastors Raul Domingo and Andy Pawican, who were shot dead on Aug. 20, 2005 and May 21, 2006, respectively. Pastor Guerrero, on the other hand, was allegedly abducted on May 27, 2007 while on his way from servicing the Local Church in Malabanan, Santa Rosa, Laguna. The military allegedly detained him for 16 months and tortured him several times. The UCCP also claimed that there were at least 22 others in the organization who were either killed or suffered violent attacks from the military. “As a result of the relentless persecution and brutalization and even of outright liquidation of numerous committed church pastors and church leaders of UCCP by the military under the presidential control and authority of Arroyo, what happened was that the work and ministry of UCCP, as a church and religious body and those of many local UCCP churches under its jurisdiction, had been brought under incalculable harm, hazard and great difficulty," the UCCP said in its complaint. — KBK/LBG/HS, GMA News