Ang kapal ng mukha ni Gloria! Kainin niya ang amnesty niya!

That’s my reaction to President Arroyo’s Proclamation 1377 granting amnesty for communist rebels.

There are insinuations that Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo and the other members of the Batasan 6 may also apply for this amnesty. Of course, in the perverted view of the Arroyo administration, these partylist congressmen are leaders of “fronts” of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Certain quarters, including retired Major Gen. Jovito Palparan, claim that Satur and the Batasan 6 are actually CPP Central Committee members. The claim is repeated endlessly by state-controlled media and anti-Left commentators who know nothing about accuracy.

They shouldn’t and they wouldn’t apply for amnesty because they have not committed or convicted of any crime. The last time we looked, the grand conspiracy that was the rebellion case was already dumped by the Supreme Court, wasn’t it?

To refresh our minds on the rebellion case, here‘s a lengthy SunStar report which, for the information of anti-Sisonites, clearly stated the Tabara-Kintanar murders among the bases for the complaint.

The fake amnesty is the culmination of the legal offensive engineered by legal ignoramus Norberto Gonzales by virtue of Arroyo’s Executive Oder 493. EO 493 created the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group which, according to the Free Legal Action Group,

[is] tasked “to provide effective and efficient handling and coordination of the investigative and prosecutorial aspects of the fight against threats to national security.” FLAG believes the creation of IALAG signals unwarranted intrusion by the military intelligence community into principally civilian functions.

The National Security Adviser leads IALAG; its members include representatives from the Departments of Justice, National Defense, Interior and Local Government, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation, and such other units tasked by the National Security Adviser.

IALAG’s principal task is to “coordinate all national security cases.” Executive Order 493 classifies the following as “national security cases:” rebellion, sedition and related offenses, and “national interest cases that threaten national security.”

Immediately after the IALAG was formed, Gonzales went around the country, going on a speaking tour in various military camps about enemies of the state which, for Gonzales, included both legal activists belonging to Bayan and Bayan Muna (non-combatants all), NDF peace negotiators (that’s Luis Jalandoni and Jose Maria Sison for you along with dozens of consultants) and New People’s Army regulars (the combatants the military can’t pin down for nearly four decades now).

Trumped-up charges were cooked up not just in Manila but nationwide.

All of a sudden, Gonzales discovers mass graves in Bukidnon and urged the prosecution of Sison and the entire Communist Party of the Philippines. Bukidnon Governor Jose Maria Zubiri lambasted him and accused him of “peddling lies”:

Zubiri lashed out at National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales concerning his allegations of the presence of mass graves in the province. During a press conference held in Bukidnon, Zubiri said Gonzales is “peddling lies in the national media” concerning the presence of the graves, which supposedly contain the remains of suspected informers of the military killed by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels. Zubiri cited a Philippine Daily Inquirer report based on Gonzales’s assertion that the military had found mass graves in Kibongkog, San Fernando town. The photographed graveyard, in fact, Zubiri said, was a native cemetery in that town. “Secretary Gonzales is a liar. He has done our province a terrible damage and an apology is not enough,” he told local broadcasters in a gathering in Malaybalay City Monday.

Gonzales’ hate campaign reaches a fever pitch thrice:

1. first, during the attempted arrest on the Batasan 6;
2. second, the detention of Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran; and
3. third, the arrest and detention of Satur earlier this year on multiple murder charges concerning another fake mass grave in Leyte

Nationwide, buoyed by the Batasan 6 case and encouraged by Gonzales’ IALAG, regional military and police units filed fabricated charges of murder or rebellion against local leaders of Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela, Bayan and other legal groups, mixing them with local commanders of the New People’s Army and always adding Jose Maria Sison’s name in the list.

A most recent example of this slew of fabricated cases is the one filed by the military in Iloilo. Sison was implicated in this case, and the military even went to say that the case will be transmitted to Holland for consideration by the judges in The Hague.

For the record, no one of those falsely charged has ever been convicted. The biggest case has been dismissed. Sison, the Batasan 6 and the other legal and underground leftist leaders have been absolved. Why should they apply for amnesty?