CA panel puts nomination of ISAFP chief on hold over Burgos case

From InterAksyon (Sep 4): CA panel puts nomination of ISAFP chief on hold over Burgos case

The defense panel of the bicameral Commission on Appointments on Wednesday deferred anew action on the nomination of Gen. Eduardo M. Ano as chief of the Intelligence Service-Armed Forces of the Philippines (Isafp) on questions related to the Jonas Burgos abduction, but approved those of 48 other officers, led by AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista.

Also recommended for confirmation by the CA plenary, at a hearing of the CA's defense committee, was the nomination of Gen. Aurelio Baladad, which was earlier opposed by human-rights groups and a physician who was among the so-called Morong 43 group of health workers, arrested and tagged as communist rebels, but ordered freed by the court.

After lengthy grilling of the objectors by members of the CA's defense panel, the contingents from both Senate and House unanimously moved to send Baladad's nomination to plenary. They said they were not satisfied that he had any direct participation in the Army-backed, special police operations that led to the arrest---and torture, as the detainees claimed---of the Morong 43. Lead opposer Dr. Alexis Montes, who said he suffered torture that included electrocution, had impleaded Baladad among several officials he sued before the Office of the Ombudsman, the QC Regional Trial Court and the Court of Appeals.

In the case of General Ano, the CA defense panel did not call to the stand the chief opposer, Edita T. Burgos, mother of farmer-activist Jonas Burgos. But the panel noted the written manifestation of Sen. Serge Osmena III reserving the right to throw questions at General Ano to clarify his alleged role in the Burgos abduction on April 28, 2007, which Mrs. Burgos has pinned on the military. On the basis of the Osmena reservation, the panel deferred further action on the general's nomination until next hearing.

In the course of the hearing, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV read into the record the preliminary text of a Department of Justice resolution, received Sept. 4 in the morning at the CA, dismissing the criminal complaint for arbitrary detention against Ano in the Burgos case. Trillanes asserted that such dismissal removed a crucial peg from Mrs. Burgos' objection to the general's confirmation.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/70038/ca-panel-puts-nomination-of-isafp-chief-on-hold-over-burgos-case