A-Infos (en) ON OLALIA-ALAY-AY DOU

[krptn@webquest.com, JGA@eureka.qc.ca (Jean-Guy Aubé)]

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Press Release 
February 10, 1998 
Reference: Antonio Liongson, Deputy Secretary-General 
 
 
RAM murder suspects should be in ball and irons 
 
The human rights group Karapatan castigated the government today for 
"pussyfooting" on the matter of investigating and trying the 21 Reform the 
Armed Forces Movement (RAM) members implicated in the double murder of 
labor leader Rolando Olalia and Leonor Alay-ay. "The fact that the murder 
suspects have won a review of the travel ban imposed on them shows that the 
Ramos government is clumsy in handling the case," said Antonio Liongson, 
Karapatan deputy secretary-general. "It seems that the government is not 
moving fast enough to make a preliminary investigation and have an airtight 
case." 
 
Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello III ordered the review based on the 
complaint of Cecilio Arillo, a journalist and avid supporter of the RAM who 
is among those charged in the 1986 double murder of the Kilusang Mayo Uno 
chair and his driver. 
 
Liongson scoffed at Arillo’s claims that the right to travel may only be 
curtailed in the interests of national security, public safety or public 
health. "Based on the three conditions, as far as we are concerned, Arillo 
and his confreres deserve to be in ball and irons, if the government wishes 
to make a decent show of going at them," he said. "It is in the national 
interest that the RAM suspects should be expeditiously tried for the double 
murder, to settle a historic wrong at a certain period when the military 
rightists threatened to restore the rule of the gun.  
 
"Resolving the Olalia-Alay-ay case is very important to the Filipino 
people, because the gruesome murders were—and remain—a political statement 
by the fascists who wanted a reign of terror." 
 
Liongson also deplored the fact that "the government of Fidel Ramos seems 
to be more interested in the political racetrack than attending to affairs 
of state." "If the former justice secretary had not abandoned his office to 
run in the May elections, the case would not have been left hanging in 
uncertainty," he said. 
 
Liongson urged the justice department "to stop playacting and apply the 
full the force of the law on the RAM murder suspects." "Justice Secretary 
Bello should not resort to a kid-glove treatment of the suspects. The 
justice department must show that it means business," he opined. ## 
 
 
 
 
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		KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights)		 
		23-D Mabuhay St., Central District, Diliman, Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 
		Tel. Nos. (++632) 434-1865 / 435-7828 
		E-mail: krptn@webquest.com 
		Website: http://freeweb.webquest.com/~krptn 
		---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
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