Militants decry DOJ’s refusal to release Beltran

Supporters of detained Anakpawis party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran lashed out at the public statements of Senior State Prosecutor Emanuel Velasco on the Department of Justice’s refusal to release the militant lawmaker, saying that the he was "acting more like a Palace lackey than a sworn dispenser of justice."

Dennis Maga, spokesman of the Free Ka Bel Movement, said in a statement that it is absurd that Velasco is "overly apprehensive about setting an unfair precedent, when it is he and the DOJ who have been unfair and unjust in their rabid refusal to acknowledge the violations of human and constitutional rights evident in the PNP’s disrespect for Beltran’s parliamentary immunity from arrest and illegal detention."

Velasco was quoted in television and radio interviews that the DOJ would deny the motion to release filed by Beltran’s lawyers on the principle of parliamentary immunity, as this would set an unfair precedent for other pending sedition and rebellion cases.

"Was Velasco not the same state prosecutor who refused to give Ka Bel and his legal counsel Atty. Romeo Capulong ample time to go over the rebellion charges filed against him during the deceitful Feb. 27 inquest at the CIDG headquarters?" Maga asked.

"The DOJ is obviously intent on keeping Ka Bel, a 73-year-old politician, unjustly behind bars under PNP custody. Velasco and his ilk are already pre-judging Congressman Beltran as guilty beyond reasonable doubt, when in fact he has not been convicted of any criminal or civil case," Maga said. 

"Better yet, Velasco should be disbarred for violating basic standards of justice," Maga said.