Bayan Muna files P9.8-M libel suit vs Palace exec

Party-list group Bayan Muna slapped National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales with a P9.8-million libel suit yesterday for accusing its representatives of diverting their congressional funds to aid communist insurgency.

Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo and his former colleagues Crispin Beltran and Liza Maza personally filed the libel complaint against Gonzales with the Department of Justice.

Beltran and Maza resigned from Bayan Muna in November last year, but Gonzales said the two, along with Ocampo, had channeled as much as P500 million of their Priority Development Assistance Fund since 2001 to the New People’s Army, the military arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Gonzales has sought the disqualification of Bayan Muna, Beltran’s party-list group Anakpawis and Maza’s Gabriela party from the party-list elections due to their alleged links with the revolutionary movement.

In his earlier statements to the media, Gonzales also alleged that Bayan Muna got its votes by coercing and intimidating voters and politicians.

In their complaint, the three militant leaders denied Gonzales’ allegations, saying the PDAF does not pass through any representatives of Bayan Muna but is disbursed in a transparent manner by the Department of Budget and Management through relevant government agencies like the Department of Public Works and Highways and the National Irrigation Administration.

The three even invited Gonzales to scrutinize congressional records to find out how they have spent their respective PDAFs.

Bayan Muna, they said, is a duly accredited political party and not a front of the CPP-NPA, having passed the stringent requirements of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) when it applied for accreditation in 2000.

They said Bayan Muna also passed the eight-point guidelines outlined by the Supreme Court when it required the Comelec to screen party-list groups in June 2001.

"Despite these clarifications, Gonzales persisted in publicly maligning Bayan Muna through the media even if, as he admitted, he had no proof of the same," their complaint stated.

Gonzales, they said, showed "malice and gross partiality because he publicly stated (the) accusations before the media."

They added that Gonzales’ statements helped intensify the harassment which they and Bayan Muna members have been experiencing.

They claimed that posters and leaflets containing Gonzales’ allegations were distributed in many regions, notably Davao, Negros and Metro Manila.