Beltran Arrested

http://www.pcij.org/blog/?p=648

Posted by: Avigail Olarte on 25 February 2006 at 12:44 pm

ANAKPAWIS party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran was arrested at 8:30 am today by a team of police operatives in Bulacan.

He and his family were aboard a car, on their way to a subdivision in San Jose del Monte, when a team of the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) aboard two vans apprehended them. They arrested Beltran with a warrant for a 1985 case for inciting to rebellion. "Imbitasyon daw ito pero palagay ko aresto ito," Beltran told reporters who went with the CIDG team to Camp Crame. No bail was recommended in that warrant.

He and his wife, Rosario, were brought to the CIDG office in Camp Crame. Karapatan, a militant human-rights alliance, said they have assembled a group of paralegals to assist Beltran. Meanwhile, Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo evaded arrest at 10:15 this morning, as members of the minority in the House of Representatives wrapped up their 9 a.m. press conference at the Sulo Hotel in Quezon City.

Obet de Castro, deputy secretary general of Bayan Muna, said he saw three vans carrying fully armed men in black waiting along Matalino St. in front of the hotel, two policemen in a PNP mobile, and a man in white shirt on a motorcycle.

De Castro said he warned Ocampo and other members of the minority that the police might be there to arrest them. They then exited through the hotel’s back door and Ocampo boarded a vehicle. He is "now in a safe place," said de Castro. Ocampo’s other blue car, which served as a decoy vehicle, was blocked by the operatives and took his driver and security aide.

Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño said the arrests confirm their fears that Proclamation 1017 was issued not against rebels but against the members of the opposition. "It is a crackdown," he said and added they will challenge the declaration in the courts.