SC orders Esperon to explain AFP urban troop deployment
05/11/2007 | 03:45 PM
The Supreme Court has directed Armed Forces chief General Hermogenes Esperon to explain the deployment of soldiers in some poor villages in Metro Manila despite having ordered their pullout earlier this week.
Radio station dzBB reported Friday that the high court, in an en banc resolution, told Esperon to comment on the petition filed by militant party-list groups that questioned the deployment.
Some 260 soldiers were sent to 26 villages, which the military said was meant to counter the recruitment drive of communist rebels. Activists decried the deployment as a move to intimidate leftist organizations.
Party-list groups Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Kabataan, and Suara Bangsa Moro had said in their 20-page petition to the Supreme Court that the deployment of troops was an "insidious incursion" that violated the Constitution and the Omnibus Election Code.
Bayan Muna earlier expressed elation after Esperon ordered the pullout on Wednesday morning, calling it a “tactical retreat".
“It is AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr's attempt to preempt the Supreme Court ruling on the Bayan Muna petition questioning the Constitutionality of his orders," Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo said.
Esperon insisted that the withdrawal had been planned as early as last week so that the military would not be accused of electioneering. -GMANews.TV
Radio station dzBB reported Friday that the high court, in an en banc resolution, told Esperon to comment on the petition filed by militant party-list groups that questioned the deployment.
Some 260 soldiers were sent to 26 villages, which the military said was meant to counter the recruitment drive of communist rebels. Activists decried the deployment as a move to intimidate leftist organizations.
Party-list groups Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Kabataan, and Suara Bangsa Moro had said in their 20-page petition to the Supreme Court that the deployment of troops was an "insidious incursion" that violated the Constitution and the Omnibus Election Code.
Bayan Muna earlier expressed elation after Esperon ordered the pullout on Wednesday morning, calling it a “tactical retreat".
“It is AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr's attempt to preempt the Supreme Court ruling on the Bayan Muna petition questioning the Constitutionality of his orders," Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo said.
Esperon insisted that the withdrawal had been planned as early as last week so that the military would not be accused of electioneering. -GMANews.TV
