“Matuwid na daan”  excludes  human rights victims and defenders;
Liberal party, a haven of warlords

One of the characteristics of the Philippine society is the bankruptcy  of the legal system.  In the cities and relatively urbanized areas, the criminal justice system is rotten. While the country’s leaders and the elite have “elegant rhetorics on justice and democracy”, the workings of the justice and police institutions have made the lives of the ordinary people miserable. In the rural areas, the dominance of warlordism has lead to the breakdown of the  operation of legal institutions. Without the operation of the legal system, impunity is committed in a very violent and wholesale manner over families and communities.  There is no law to speak of except the law emanating from the barrel of the gun.  Warlords have no concept of human rights and   its promotion has no space in their unmitigated brute  power-wielding governance.

The Ampatuans of Maguindanao are a truly exceptional specimen of warlordism. The Tans of Sulu are not far behind. During the recent election, the ex-governor of  Jolo, Gov. Sakur Tan got himself elected as vice-governor after being a governor for two terms, while his  son, Totoh Tan became the governor.  They have wormed themselves into the Liberal Party, the political party of Pnoy after bolting out from GMA’s Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrat (Lakas-Kampi CMD) party.  The elder Tan maintains a private army, with a complement of armored personnel carriers. He has reduced Sulu into his personal his fiefdom and operates like a Mafia don.  There are  reports that Tan is also involved in illegal activities like drug trafficking and merchandise smuggling.

There is no room for dissent in Jolo.   Blood of human rights victims redden the land of Jolo.  Warlord rule has sown so much fear in the people making them passive, if not paralyzed, to assert their rights. Worst is that extreme fear has erased from their senses and memory the knowledge that they have human rights.

Amidst the seemingly hopeless situation, Cocoy Tulawie dared to shatter the culture of impunity engulfing the island. He led the opposition to the plan to impose an ID system in Sulu and succeeded in January 2008. If it was implemented, the ID system could have further curtailed civil liberties, legitimized warrantless search and arrest, and institutionalized discriminatory religious profiling all under the guise of the “war against terror”.   Cocoy challenged ex-Gov. Sakur Tan in the Supreme Court on the latter’s Proclamation of a State of Emergency last March 31, 2009. Cocoy organized fact-finding missions which exposed  Sakur Tan’s culpability by virtue of omission in relation to the rise of cases of gang rapes and sexual violence against women in Sulu. Victims who were interviewed all pointed to the sons of political warlords and members of the Civilian Emergency Forces as perpetrators of these heinous crimes. But justice was not served because the perpetrators are people who have connections with or are working for  Sakur Tan.

Sakur Tan filed fabricated charges against Cocoy  that led to Cocoy’s temporary separation from his family and the Tausug people.  In 2009, Sakur Tan was said to have paid the RTC judge in Jolo with P3M to issue the warrant of arrest for Cocoy. Believing he had no chance of being tried fairly in Jolo, Cocoy transferred residence to Davao City while waiting for the Supreme Court decision on his motion for transfer of venue of trial to Davao.

In June 13, 2011, the Supreme Court granted his request for transfer of venue.  Sakur Tan then shelled out P8M pesos to the Military Intelligence Group (MIG) and the PNP Special Action Force to effect the arrest of Cocoy, and in January 14, 2012, Cocoy was indeed arrested. Two days after, in defiance with the Supreme Court ruling, Cocoy  was forcibly taken from the PNP camp in Davao City and flown to Zamboanga City on board the private plane owned by Sakur Tan to be brought back to Jolo. They were intercepted at the Zamboanga airport and Cocoy was returned to Davao City the following day.

When Cocoy’s case was transferred to RTC Manila Branch 19, Sakur Tan and the Pnoy government went to the extent of utilizing high-valued Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) terrorists as prosecution witnesses. These individuals were detained in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City. The lawyer of Sakur Tan earlier offered help to Sali Said for the dropping of kidnapping case against him and for his release from prison.

Sali Said and other two witnesses (Robin Sahiyal and Ahmad Ahadi) against Cocoy were repackaged so that they could qualify into the National Commission for Muslim Filipinos (MCMF) for legal assistance. No less than the Department of Justice (DoJ) Task Force on Anti-Terrorism was able to resolve that there is “no proof of their participation in the kidnapping, much less evidence of their purported membership in the ASG.” Note that Sali Said was positively identified as one of those who kidnapped Prof. Octavio Dimanpo and Ces Drilon on June 8, 2008 in Sulu.

In February 15, 2013, the three “innocent” detainees “walked” to freedom. They were fetched by the relatives of Sakur Tan and were billeted at one of the houses of Sakur Tan in Manila.

Links of Gov. Sakur Tan with the Abu Sayyaf surfaced much earlier. Robot (involved in the Sipadan kidnapping of tourists in April 2000) was seen in Tan’s residence in Jolo after the group received the ransom and Tan even partook of the loot.

The tactics of Sakur Tan are accommodated (even to the extent of exposing the hyprocrisy of the whole legal system), for he is not alone in wishing that Cocoy Tulawie is effectively neutralized.  The Philippine military, under the notorious Task Force Comet  also wants to silence Cocoy Tulawie.

The United States of America is also interested in getting  rid of Cocoy Tulawie.  Cocoy Tulawie has been at the forefront of an anti-imperialist movement in the island. When the US Troops were about to enter the island in 2002, the local anti-imperialist movement in Jolo registered (in their thousands)  their refusal to allow them. When the US troops manipulated their way into the island, Cocoy Tulawie Tulawie stood firm in demanding their immediate pull-out.

The bankruptcy of the legal system is so stenchy.  Innocent individuals  continue to languish in jails while moneyed scions of the ruling class perpetually delay the legal processes.  Unchecked pattern of “unidentified” assassins riding in tandem on motorcycles killing activists and mass leaders of people’s organizations has become  daily reality.  According to the Asian Human Rights Commission,  “the  stories reveal a pattern of extreme cruelty and state complicity…. Filipinos are being threatened, tortured, abducted, killed and destroyed with brutality.”

This is Pnoy’s “Matuwid na Daan”.

FRIENDS AND COMRADES OF COCOY TULAWIE

July 20, 2013

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