MANILA, Philippines - The lawyers of detained peasant leader Randall Echanis of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) will question his sudden transfer from Camp Crame to Manila City Jail Saturday morning.
This, as Echanis lawyers appealed to Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32 Judge Thelma Bunyi-Media, who approved the transfer, to be more transparent and considerate given the health condition of the 60-year-old KMP leader.
"Echanis lawyers were not informed about the transfer. His relatives, colleagues in KMP and the people's movement were shocked to learn that my client was transferred to Manila City Jail. She could have at least informed us and the family of Echanis about her
decision," said lawyer Jobert Pahilga, executive director of the Sentro Para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (Sentra)..
Pahilga said he and the lead counsel Romeo Capulong of the Public Interest Law Center (PILC) will file a motion asking Judge Medina to reverse her decision and send back Echanis to the Philippine National Police Custodial Center.
KMP Secretary General Danilo Ramos described Echanis as a political prisoner and a sickly person battered by day-to-day sharp increase in blood pressure.
"He needs proper medical attention because of his health condition. The Manila City Jail is not the right place for him physically, politically and morally speaking. He is a decent and dignified man. He deserves humane and appropriate treatment," Ramos said.
He said relatives and supporters of Echanis will join Capulong and Pahilga in filing the motion to transfer Echanis back to PNP Custodial Center on Monday.
"The fight for Echanis urgent and unconditional release will be intensified in the parliament of the streets and in the court of public opinion. We are ready for this protracted battle for truth, justice and emancipation, Ramos said.
Ramos recalled that last Saturday he received a call from one of their paralegal staff at around 9:30 a.m informing him that Echanis was hurriedly transferred from the his detention inside the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame to Manila City Jail.
The KMP leader asserted that Malacañang, the National Security Council and the Department of Justice were behind the highly irregular, Mafia-style and grossly diabolical transfer of the jailed peasant leader.
Echanis, implicated in the purge of his former comrades in the communist movement in the early- and mid-80s, was transferred Tuesday last week from Palo Provincial Jail in Leyte to PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame.
On January 28, Echanis was arrested in Bago City, Negros Occidental while attending a national conference called by the agricultural worker group Unyon ng Mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) regarding the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) or House Bill 3059 authored by the late Anakpawis party list Rep. Crispin Beltran.
Even government and AFP records, including court proceedings, revealed that Echanis was held in solitary confinement by the military at the time the alleged crimes were committed in the early and mid 80s.
The Manila RTC had also dismissed all criminal charges filed by the Marcos government in the 80s against Echanis. In 1992, the case of illegal possession of firearms was again dismissed by the Manila RTC for lack of merit. - D'Jay Lazaro, GMANews.TV