A red ax to grind

Twenty six years after the much publicized murder of labor leader Rolando Olalia and his aide Leonor Alay-ay, Eduardo “Red” Kapunan, a retired lieutenant colonel, an officer of the rightist group of the “Reform the Armed Forces Movement” (RAM) and one of the 13 RAM boys charged of the 1986 killing has finally surrendered. Three questions come into mind: 1) Why is the Olalia-Alay-ay double murder case resurrected? 2) Why is Red Kapunan being singled out among other RAM members (Sen. Honasan included) who allegedly had a hand in the killings? 3) Why did Kapunan choose to surrender to the military?

Who is Red Kapunan? Red Kapunan belonged to the Ilonggo or the Ilaga group of the RAM together with Rex Robles, Manny Figueroa and Felix Turingan. In line with the Ilonggo tradition of being freedom fighters, this idealistic group who apart from having served as acolytes at the St. Clements Church in La Paz, Iloilo City, were the brains behind the organization of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM).

Junior officers, disillusioned by the corrupt martial law regime asked advice from senior officers like Honasan on what they can do for the country. This resulted in the birth of the RAM ideals. RAM is composed of distinguished men — five of them are barons or corps commanders of their class contrasted with the Marcos officers most of whom were selected based on loyalty.

Kapunan was one of the original members of the RAM who would go from camp to camp and talk to the younger officers about the perceived malpractices and favoritism in the armed forces.

During President Cory Aquino’s time, the military, particularly members of the Philippine Military Academy’s Class of 1971, were not given positions they used to enjoy. To make things worse, Cory’s people felt (or even knew) that the RAM boys were out to get them. This was heightened when the administration at that time released top communist leaders Jose Ma. Sison and Satur Ocampo from prison and appointed several left-wing personalities to sensitive government positions.

The first coup attempt against the Cory administration was plotted by the RAM (renamed as Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa). As a matter of fact, the National Bureau of Investigation concluded later that the Olalia-Alay-ay murders were a prelude to the plot of overthrowing the Aquino government code-named “God Save the Queen”. The objective was to get perceived leftist officials out of the Cabinet. The RAM was tagged as coup plotters. When Olalia was killed, the principal suspects were officers and soldiers belonging to the RAM. Kapunan was one of them.

After the 1987 coup attempt, Red was placed under “house arrest” in Camp Aguinaldo for two years. He went into hiding for another two years after joining the December 1989 bloody coup with then Lt. Danny Lim. He only came out when former President Fidel Ramos assumed office. He was among those granted amnesty under Proclamation 347 issued by Ramos on March 25, 1994.

Section 1 of Proclamation No. 347 states: Amnesty is hereby granted to all persons who shall apply therefore and who have or may have committed crimes, on or before thirty (30) days following the publication of this Proclamation in two (2) newspapers of general circulation, in pursuit of political beliefs, whether punishable under the Revised Penal Code or special laws, including but not limited to the following: rebellion or insurrection; coup d’ etat; conspiracy and proposal to commit rebellion, insurrection or coup d’ etat; disloyalty of public officers or employees; inciting to rebellion or insurrection; sedition; conspiracy to commit sedition; inciting to sedition; illegal assembly; illegal association; direct assault; indirect assault; resistance and disobedience to a person in authority or the agents of such person; tumults and other disturbances of public order; unlawful use of means of publication and unlawful utterances; alarms and scandals; illegal possession of firearms, ammunition or explosives, committed in furtherance of, incident to, or in connection with the crimes of rebellion or insurrection; and violations of Articles 59 (desertion), 62 (absence without leave), 67 (mutiny or sedition), 68 (failure to suppress mutiny or sedition), 94 (various crimes) 96 (conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman), and 97 (general article) of the Articles of War: Provided, that the amnesty shall not cover crimes against chastity and other crimes committed for personal ends.”

A group believes that Kapunan’s amnesty should be Proclamation 348. Section 1 of Proclamation No. 348, as amended by Section 1 of Proclamation No. 377 provides: Amnesty is hereby granted to all personnel of the AFP and PNP who shall apply therefore and who have or may have committed, as of the date of this Proclamation, acts or omissions punishable under the Revised Penal Code, the Articles of War or other special laws, in furtherance of, incident to, or in connection with counter-insurgency operations; Provided, that such acts or omissions do not constitute serious human rights violations, such as acts of torture, extra-legal execution, arson, massacre, rape, other crimes against chastity or robbery of any form; and provided, That the acts were not committed for personal ends.

The amnesty granted to Kapunan extends to acts constituting only one crime, rebellion. Thus, any inquiry whether he is liable for prosecution with the Olalia-Alay-ay killings will rely not on the list of acts or crimes enumerated in Section 1 of Proclamation No. 347, but on the definition of rebellion and its component acts.

Anyway, the question is: why is Kapunan being singled out right now? What about the other RAM members? It must be noted that junior officers of the RAM have held or are holding positions in the AFP, in the PNP not to mention in the Senate as well.

According to Kapunan, he surrendered because he believes he is not guilty. He wants to show us that he is a man who will face the charges and not run away like many others have done in the recent past.

I write about this issue because I feel that this story has to be told. There’s just got to be a balance. Some may not agree but just the same Kapunan’s case must be heard.

I’m not quite sure what’s going on. What are the motives behind the renewed interest on this case? Are the leftist groups from the Cory days back with a vengeance? Is it another ax to grind for the government? And a red one this time? Abangan!