NSA chief says government has strong case against Satur

The government has a strong case against Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, who is charged with multiple murder in connection with an alleged New People’s Army (NPA) purge in Leyte in the late 1980s, Malacañang said yesterday.

In a statement, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said witnesses have testified to have seen Ocampo in Leyte to oversee the alleged killings after his escape from military custody on May 5, 1983 and before his recapture in 1987.

The Armed Forces will be able to prove that Ocampo had a hand in the killing of members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the National Democratic Front (NDF), who were suspected to be military spies, he added.

Gonzales said Ocampo and exiled communist rebel leaders Jose Ma. Sison and Luis Jalandoni were charged with multiple murder after the discovery of a mass grave in Inopacan, Leyte containing at least 67 skeletal remains.

"Witnesses claimed that the three leaders signed an order for the execution of the victims," he said.

Gonzales, Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas chairman, said Ocampo and other leftist party-list lawmakers have not cut links with the CPP and NDF.

"We have given the CPP-NDF-NPA the political space to participate in our democracy hoping that they would finally abandon armed rebellion and violence as a means to achieving political change," he said.

"However, instead of condemning armed rebellion, they used our democratic processes to prop up their armed struggle."

Gonzales said the murder case against Ocampo has not lapsed because under Article 91 of the Revised Penal Code, the period of prescription of an offense starts from the day of the discovery of the crime.

The mass grave was discovered only last year, he added.

Meanwhile, Gonzales said the government is preparing to file new charges against Sison for an NPA attack on a mining firm in Surigao del Sur last Tuesday.

Sison will be charged for robbery, destruction of private property, economic sabotage, and violation of the election gun ban, added Philippine National Police chief Director General Oscar Calderon.

On Tuesday, 60 heavily armed NPA guerrillas attacked the MG Mining Co. in Sitio Mendezona, Barangay Raja Cabungsuan, Lingig town.

The rebels ransacked the place before taking the personal belongings of the employees and the service firearms of the security guards.

On the other hand, Gonzales dared yesterday Ocampo and other party-list group lawmakers to renounce the "atrocities" of the NPA. – Paolo Romero, Katherine Adraneda