Govt, military have it all wrong, burden of proof is with prosecution - Tiamzon lawyers

From InterAksyon (Mar 26): Govt, military have it all wrong, burden of proof is with prosecution - Tiamzon lawyers

Lawyers of captured communist rebel leaders Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria chided government for turning the prosecution process on its head by daring them to prove their claims that the weapons supposedly seized from the couple and their companions during their arrest were “planted.”

At the same time, the National Union of People’s Lawyers took to task Armed Forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala for insinuating that they were engaging in “propaganda” by speaking on their clients’ behalf.

NUPL members form part of the defense team of the Tiamzons and their four companions, who were arrested in Aloguinsan, Cebu Saturday.

After walking out of what she called “irregular” inquest proceedings at Camp Crame on Monday, one of the Tiamzons’ lawyers, Rachel Pastores, questioned the charge illegal possession of firearms and explosive devices raised against her clients by the Department of Justice.

She said it was only on Monday that they were informed that arms and ammunition were recovered during the arrest.

Responding to this, Malacanang Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. challenged the Tiamzons’ lawyers to prove their claim the weapons were planted.

But the NUPL, in a statement on Wednesday, said Coloma had turned procedure around.

“Last time we checked, it is the prosecution (and) government that should prove its case” and the “integrity and legal admissibility of the assailed firearms and explosives,” it said.

On Zagala’s “propaganda” remark, the NUPL said: “We lawyers are just exercising our profession and protecting the rights of our clients amidst vicious vilification and unmitigated demonization. We have no choice when queried but to explain the side of our clients amidst the barrage of government pronouncements. We cannot just take these sitting down without rectification.”

The human rights lawyers’ group also dismissed the assertion of Philippine National Police spokesman Chief Superintendent Reuban Sindac that the arrest of the Tiamzons and their companions was “with presumption of regularity.”

“Abundant experience and long record of police operations has patently shown the reverse in actual practice,” it said. “In contemporary Philippine setting, this legal presumption is an anachronism. It has been exploited as a veneer for justifying shortcuts, blunders, missteps, rights violations and even coverups to escape accountability.”

The group claimed the norm has become the “denial/limitation of right to counsel, torture, trumped-up charges, demonization of dissenters, curtailment of basic rights, and alas, prohibition or intolerance against any form of speech contrary to the official government line.”

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/83500/govt-military-have-it-all-wrong-burden-of-proof-is-with-prosecution---tiamzon-lawyers