filename: CBSEP26.DOC
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Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
September 26, 2002
***Three (3) Stories****
1. Loren blames proliferation of cults on breakdown of society, morality
2. CASES OF ALLEGED RUBOUTS SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED - PIMENTEL
3. LOREN OUTRAGED BY ACQUITTAL OF KL COP IN RAPE OF PINAY
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story no. 1
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Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
September 26, 2002
Loren blames proliferation of cults on breakdown of society, morality
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Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda blamed yesterday the continued
proliferation of cults in the Philippines on what she described as the "alarming
breakdown in our society.
A day after forwarding to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) evidence on
the deviant and criminal activities of a sex cult in Negros, Legarda called on
Filipino to go back to the basic values that foster a tightly-knit family and
moral ascendancy.
That minors had been photographed engaging in sexual activities with other
members of the cult led by one Leonardo Erobas showed that many of our children
are not properly guided," Legarda lamented.
"Children would find no need to belong in any group that exploits their
innocence if they find the love, attention and caring they crave for at home,"
said Legarda.
"Somewhere, somehow, there is a breakdown in our society." She said.
The Erobas cult invited Legarda and other senators to join them in propagating a
"sex-bomb" ideology, attaching with the invitations photographs of sect members
led by Erobas engaging in sex with apparent minors.
Irked by the Erobas ' gall to flaunt to senators their "wretched" activities,
the lady solon said the NBI should waste no time in apprehending Erobas and his
followers, especially since there are sufficient evidence to pin them down on
the exploitation of minors and other criminal activities.
Legarda asked the NBI to file a foolproof case against Erobas and his followers
since many cult members in the pas have "conveniently sought refuge on claims of
insanity." A few months ago, Legarda also exposed a Cebu-based website that
displayed nude photos of Filipino students.///camille p. balagtas
story no. 2
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Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
September 26, 2002
CASES OF ALLEGED RUBOUTS SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED - PIMENTEL
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Senator Aquilino Q. Pimentel< jr. (PDP-Laban) today urged Malacanang and law
enforcement authorities not to turn a blind eye to reported incidents of
salvaging of crime suspects by policemen in the face of criticisms of rampant
violations of human rights under the present administration.
Pimentel dared President Macapagal-Arroyo to order an impartial investigation of
the alleged extra-judicial killings if only to allay public apprehensions that
this is part of the so-called secret weapons against criminal elements.
"Under no circumstance should extrajudicial killings of crime suspects be
tolerated by government authorities. It would be most terrible to see them
breaking the law and contributing to the erosion of public trust in our criminal
justice system," he said.
Pimentel said the PNP should look into reports that the death of five carnapping
suspects on Congressional Avenue in Baragay Toro, Quezon City on Sept 14 was a
result of a rubout and not a shootout with members of the PNP Traffic Mangement
Group (TMG).
He said a taxi driver, who witnessed the killing at about 2AM, confessed that no
shoot out with the police occurred. The driver claimed that he saw five
heavily-armed men alighting from a marron L-300 van and without warning opened
fire at the alleged car thieves inside two vehicles, a Toyota Tamaraw FX and a
Nissan Sentra. Two of the suspects were identified as Noel Parungao and Jose
Vener Garcia, 31.
Pimentel said the allegation of a rubout gained credence when Roberto Garcia,
father of Jose Vener-Garcia, came forward to report that a team of policemen had
forcibly taken his son from his home two days before the killing.
Before this incident, Pimentel said a series of summary executions took place in
Cagayan de Oro City over a period of several months, claiming the lives of 28
innocent people.
"And I think that this is a disturbing situation when government can just look
the other way while innocent lives are being snuffed out," he said.
Pimentel lamented that the culprits behind the rubouts have not been apprehended
after he personally asked Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina,
Jr., and PNP Director-General Hermogenes Ebdane to investigate these killings.
According to the senator from Mindanao, crime suspects are snatched from their
homes in the guise of legitimate arrest and afterwards their dead bodies are
dumped in secluded areas.
Pimentel said the occurrence of summary executions has given rise to fears about
the return of era of repression or what militant cause-oriented groups call
undeclared martial law. ///camille p. balagtas
-30-
story no. 3
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Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
September 26, 2002
LOREN OUTRAGED BY ACQUITTAL OF KL COP IN RAPE OF PINAY
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Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda urged the Philippine government to condemn
in the strongest possible way a Malaysian judge's acquittal of a policeman who
was caught on video raping two inmates, including a 23-year-old Filipina.
"This is an outrage! How insensitive of this judge to rule out rape just because
the victims supposedly did not fight off their attackers and did not sustain
bruises," said Legarda.
"The outcry raised by Malaysian women rights group over this travesty of justice
shows that many people still do not understand the dynamics of rape," she added.
"Sex between a person that wields power like this policeman and those under his
control, in this case the inmates, can never be consensual!"
The senator said though Malaysian laws may be different from thos of the
Philippines, the judge may have surely erred in not considering that threat and
intimidation had been employed by the jailor to force the inmates to have sex
with him.
The Department of Foreign Affairs, said Legarda, should consider itself
forewarned as to how Malaysian courts operate in lieu of the other cases the
Philippine government is filing in relation to offenses committed against
Filipino deportees from Sabah.
"The rape of the two inmates was captured on closed circuit television, but this
judge had the gall to like the assault to an intimate act between a husband and
a wife. I cannot think of a more convoluted reasoning than this, especially
coming from a supposed learned man of the law."
Legarda said the incident gives credence to the complaints by some Filipino
deportees that they have been raped by Malaysian policemen.
///camille p. balagtas
