Only Vatican can order removal of RH posters, says Bacolod diocese

BACOLOD CITY , Philippines   – Only the Vatican can order the Diocese of Bacolod to remove its controversial tarpaulin on the façade of San Sebastian Cathedral with the list of senatorial candidates dubbed as Team Buhay (Life) and Team Patay (Patay).

The lawyer of the diocese told The STAR yesterday that “since the tarpaulin is on Church grounds, only the bishop will say when they shall be removed.”

Ralph Sarmiento, one of three legal counsels of Bishop Vicente Navarra and the Diocese of Bacolod, in a text message explained that “since the tarpaulin is connected to the Church’s moral teachings touching on social issues, the Bishop will only receive orders from the Vatican, not from the Comelec (Commission on Elections).”

Sarmiento’s statement was a reply to a report that the Comelec is filing charges against Bishop Navarra and the diocese this week for the church’s refusal to take down the oversized tarpaulin on the Reproductive Health (RH) Law posted on the façade of San Sebastian Cathedral.

“We will commence the proceedings next week for the filing of election offense cases to whoever is behind this, unless restrained by the Supreme Court (SC),” Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. posted on his Twitter account Saturday.

Sarmiento said that the Diocese has no intention to comply with a Comelec rule that infringes on its constitutional rights.
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“Constitutional rights take precedence and prevail over mere Comelec resolution,” he said.

The Diocese of Bacolod has sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the SC to stop the Comelec from implementing its order to remove the controversial billboard for being “unconstitutional and void.”

Navarra filed last Friday an “urgent petition for certiorari and prohibition with application for preliminary injunction and TRO” against the Comelec and Bacolod election registrar Mavil Majarucon-Sia.

“If the SC does not issue a TRO, the diocese and the bishop are ready to face whatever cases the Comelec intends to file because we believe that it actually has no legal basis for any of its threat,” Sarmiento said.

Brillantes said the Comelec welcomes the petition but maintained “the tarpaulin is an election propaganda and thus covered by the size restriction imposed by law.”

He said that contrary to earlier reports, the estimated size of the tarpaulin is 10 feet by 20 feet, not 6 feet by 10 feet (as reported by Comelec-Bacolod), thus even if it is cut in half, it would still be oversized.

Comelec Resolution 9615 specifies that campaign posters should not exceed 2 x 3 feet.

Brillantes also posted on his Twitter account a photo of the tarpaulin in question, with a comment: I want you to judge. Tell me if this is not oversized? If this is not meant to influence voters?

Mitchelle Abella, another legal counsel of the diocese, earlier explained that the “6 feet by 10 feet size” of the tarpaulin reflects the message that the diocese wanted to convey to its flock: “six feet below the ground” as a symbol of death, and “ten feet standing tall” as the symbol of life.

“The election period is only incidental to this fight. With or without national or local elections, the diocese will oppose the RH law until it is repealed or adequately amended or modified,” Abella said.

The tarpaulin listed the lawmakers who voted in favor of the RH bill as “Team Patay,” and those who voted against the law as “Team Buhay.”

 The Catholic Church has opposed the enactment of the RH Law on the ground that it would promote abortion, hence those who voted in favor of it are called Team Patay, while those who voted against it are Team Buhay.

Brillantes said last week that the Diocese “should take down the posters or they will be charged.”

“The Comelec order is unconstitutional, a violation of the principle of separation of Church and State, and a violation of the freedom of expression of the Church,” Navarra said in his petition with the SC.

Navarra argued that the billboard is covered by the broader constitutional guaranty of freedom of expression, not by election laws or rules and regulations.

He said the Comelec has no jurisdiction over the Church, aside from the fact that the tarpaulin is inside church premises.

Brillantes recognized that the Church is privately owned but maintained that the tarpaulin is still covered by the size restriction under Comelec rules.

“I maintain that election laws including those governing campaign apply to all citizens regardless of faith or persuasion, even the Church,” Brillantes tweeted.

“Freedom of speech and expression must be exercised within the bounds of law. Existing laws set the maximum size allowed for posters,” he added.

Navarra said the billboard would remain in the façade of the cathedral until election day. He said more Church leaders across the country are set to follow his example and will put up similar billboards.

“I’m saddened by the defiance of the local diocese as the Catholic Church is a trusted and long-time partner in securing orderly elections,” Brillantes said.

“We are not being unreasonable - we quietly met and pleaded with the Diocese for its removal, sent them two notices which were both disregarded,” he added.

A question of jurisdiction

Meanwhile, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said the Church could seek other legal measures other than directly seeking the High Court’s intervention.

“The Diocese should first exhaust all available legal remedies before it could go to the Supreme Court like filing with the Comelec Law Department,” he explained, noting that the High Court may not take action on the petition of the Bacolod diocese for lack of jurisdiction.

Under the Constitution and existing jurisprudence, Macalintal said, the Supreme Court’s power to review Comelec cases is limited to decisions or orders or ruling of the full commission.

“The court does not even have power to review decisions of a division of the Comelec, more so, any order of a mere department of the poll body,” he pointed out.

However, Macalintal said, the diocese may insist on not removing the controversial tarpaulin since the Comelec resolution does not contain provision prohibiting any private person from posting election propaganda materials of whatever size on his own private property.

“For sure there is no issue that the church property is a private property,” Macalintal said, noting that the size requirement for propaganda only applies to materials displayed in public places by “political parties and candidates.”

He explained that “prohibited forms of election propaganda” refer only to propaganda that does not bear the information on the person who paid for the ad.

He said the Comelec resolution does not define “unlawful propaganda materials” insofar as private persons are concerned precisely because they have the right to use or abuse their own properties.

“The petition cannot be filed by the Law Department of the Comelec as it cannot be the complainant, prosecutor or judge rolled into one. It appears that there is no such petition filed against the Diocese of Bacolod,” Macalintal explained.

According to Macalintal, the tarpaulin cannot be considered as election propaganda but merely an expression of the Church’s continuing position against the RH Law.

– Mayen Jaymalin

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MNLF urges OIC, UN to intervene in Sabah

MANILA, Philippines - As violence spread in Sabah, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the United Nations were urged yesterday to intervene and initiate negotiations between Malaysia and the Sultanate of Sulu.

The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which issued the call, however, said the Philippine government should be excluded from the negotiations.

MNLF chieftain Nur Misuari also urged Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to stop sending more troops to Sabah and “tone down your voice.”

Misuari said he and his clan are the true owners of Sabah and the Malaysian state of Sarawak. He said history would bear out that Sabah and Sarawak were the original properties of his great, great grandfather.

Habib Mujahab Hashim, chairman of the MNLF’S Islamic Command Council, said their group could serve as mediator between the Sulu sultanate’s army and Malaysian forces.

Hashim said OIC members Brunei or Indonesia could mediate in behalf of the organization of Islamic states.
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He urged the UN, through its committee on human rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to send representatives to Sabah to see the measures being carried out by Malaysian forces against Filipinos.

The sultanate of Sulu claims much of Sabah, once called North Borneo, as ancestral land, and receives an annual payment of about P70,000 from Malaysia. The sultanate wants the payment increased.

President Aquino has described the Philippine claim over Sabah, which is based on the Sulu sultanate’s claim, as “dormant.”

Misuari arrived in Davao City Saturday night with his wife Tarhata for a meeting with Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

“The blood of our brothers in Sabah is sacred,” Misuari said. “I hope Najib will not persecute our civilians in Sabah as it will trigger bigger trouble and it will drag us into war, and I don’t like that. I am calling on Najib to please tone down your voice. All of us want peace. We do not want war.”

He said the Sabah conflict could be resolved in a “brotherly way... to the best interest of everybody.”

Misuari said his grandnephew is a relative of the Malaysian prime minister, whom he considered a friend.

The MNLF chief, who celebrated his birthday yesterday, admitted that some of the people who went to Lahad Datu were his relatives and members of his group. But he denied instigating the trip to Sabah.

“How can that be? I was in Africa for more than a month with my wife and I have nothing to do with the move of the sultan,” Misuari said.

He emphasized that sending “only 200” men to Sabah “is not my style.”

President Aquino was reportedly furious and suspected that certain quarters instigated the Lahad Datu incident to sabotage the peace process with the MNLF’s breakaway group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

“I pity the President. He does not know what he is talking about,” Misuari said. “He will become a laughingstock in the whole world.”

Misuari noted reports that he would be arrested for the Sabah incident.

“They blame me for it. Why am I being blamed for this? They said I financed it. But where would I get the money to finance a takeover?” he said.

Duterte said there was no evidence linking Misuari to the incident in Sabah.

“I’m very sure that Nur Misuari would not do that,” Duterte said.

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MANILA, Philippines - As violence spread in Sabah, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the United Nations were urged yesterday to intervene and initiate negotiations between Malaysia and the Sultanate of Sulu.
The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which issued the call, however, said the Philippine government should be excluded from the negotiations.
MNLF chieftain Nur Misuari also urged Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to stop sending more troops to Sabah and “tone down your voice.”
Misuari said he and his clan are the true owners of Sabah and the Malaysian state of Sarawak. He said history would bear out that Sabah and Sarawak were the original properties of his great, great grandfather.
Habib Mujahab Hashim, chairman of the MNLF’S Islamic Command Council, said their group could serve as mediator between the Sulu sultanate’s army and Malaysian forces.
Hashim said OIC members Brunei or Indonesia could mediate in behalf of the organization of Islamic states.
- See more at: http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/03/04/915534/mnlf-urges-oic-un-intervene-sabah#sthash.rvxfoXjX.dpuf

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Sulu Sultan's cousin arrested in Sabah

MANILA (1st UPDATE) - A cousin of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram has reportedly been arrested by Malaysian police in the island of Sabah, Malaysia.
Salib Asaral, the sultan's cousin, is currently detained in the town of Lahad Datu, where over a hundred of the sultan's followers arrived by sea last February 9 to claim the island.
The Philippines has sent a mercy ship to pick up scores of followers of Kiram who entered the Malaysian state of Sabah to press his territorial claims.
The "humanitarian ship" departed the southern-most Philippine island province of Tawi-Tawi before midnight and headed to Lahad Datu on Borneo island, where dozens of followers of Kiram have been locked in a tense stand-off with Malaysian authorities for two weeks.
The Filipinos have been holed up in a small coastal area of Lahad Datu town, where they have remained surrounded by security forces since February 12 as they pursue their claim to settle in the state, which used to be a part of the Sultanate of Sulu.
"As we have stated on countless occasions previously, we call on the entire group to go back to their homes and families, even at the same time, we are addressing the core issues they have raised," Philippines Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said in a statement on Sunday.
"Please do so for your own safety," he added.
Aboard the mercy ship were Filipino Muslim leaders, social workers and medical personnel, del Rosario's statement said, stressing that the government "was deeply concerned" about the presence of women among the group.
The Philippines informed Malaysia through its embassy in Manila of the move on Saturday, it added.
Del Rosario's statement said the group numbered some 180, with 30 armed escorts, although the sultan's spokesman, Abraham Idjirani, last week put the figure at 400, including 20 bearing arms.
Idjirani said the sultan had given the Filipinos his blessing to reside in Sabah and they were determined to resist efforts to expel them.
The Islamic Sultanate of Sulu once controlled parts of Borneo, including the site of the stand-off, as well as southern Philippine islands.
The sultanate leased northern Borneo to Europeans in the 1870s. While the sultanate's authority gradually faded as Western colonial powers exerted their influence over the region, it continued to receive lease payments for Sabah.
Heirs to the sultanate still receive nominal annual compensation from Malaysia under a long-standing agreement. One of the demands from the sultan's followers is an increase in the amount of compensation paid.
Deadline extension
On Monday, del Rosario urged Malaysia to extend the Tuesday deadline for the Sultan's followers to leave Sabah.
He met with Malaysian Ambassador to Manila Dato' Mohd Zamri Bin Mohd Kassim to renew Manila's request.
The DFA said the deadline extension is needed to convince the sultan's followers to leave the island voluntarily.
"We had a meeting this morning and we want to know some details regarding what is happening as far as the Filipinos in Sabah are concerned. We are still hoping they will come back to us with official confirmation," DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said.
Del Rosario also urged Kuala Lumpur to allow the Philippine ship to dock at Lahad Datu to bring food to the Filipinos and fetch those who want to go home.
"The current plan is for that ship to be at the border. The Malaysian government will bring the Filipinos to Lahad Datu to our ship which will be anchored off the border," Hernandez said.
"We sent the ship to Lahad Datu on a humanitarian mission. We are deeply concerned about the presence of five women and other civilians in the group, and we urge them to board the ship without delay and return home," del Rosario said.
"We are getting mixed signals so we asked that Tuesday midnight deadline be officially confirmed," del Rosario said in a text message.
The meeting also tackled the situation of Filipinos in Sabah.
"We were trying to see how we could end this peacefully and expeditiously so we want also to be able to bring our ship close to Lahad Datu for the movement of the people there and to bring them back home and other civilians there. We are trying to convince them to board the ship and go home as soon as possible," Hernandez said.  -- with reports from Ron Gagalac, ABS-CBN News; Agence France-Presse

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Martial Law Victims to Receive Reparations

MANILA — Philippine President Benigno Aquino signed into law Monday legislation that would recognize and compensate victims of human rights abuses during martial law under former President Ferdinand Marcos.

Lawmakers spent 14 years trying to pass various forms of a proposal that would make the government recognize human rights victims of injustices under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Congressman Walden Bello says it passed this year because many legislators realized the victims were aging, if not dying, and had grown sickly.

“It’s great that we were finally able to muster the forces to get it through both Houses of Congress," Bello said. "Also, I think it’s very significant because the Philippines is one of the few if not the only government that has in fact designated reparations payments for human rights violations that have been admitted by its agencies.”

The new law sets aside $250 million to compensate victims or families of victims, determined by an independent panel, to have been murdered, tortured or suffered other injustices at the hands of law enforcement and the military of the Marcos administration.

The Marcos family continues to deny any human rights violations took place under Ferdinand Marcos’s rule.

Marie Hilao-Enriquez is chairperson of SELDA, a victims’ advocacy group that lobbied hard for the law. She was an activist during the martial law years and was thrown in jail where she gave birth to her first child. She escaped, but her sister was later detained and killed.

Hilao-Enriquez says the group is happy to finally be recognized by the government. But she says the fight is not over.

“This is a small portion of justice," she said, "the reparations and recognition because to us complete justice means the perpetrators should acknowledge the sins they have committed. They should issue an apology. They should be prosecuted for their sins.”

Money for the fund comes from part of the Marcos estate which allegedly came from ill-gotten wealth that was frozen by the Swiss government and returned to Philippine authorities.

President Aquino signed the Human Rights Victims Recognition and Reparation Act into law on the 27th anniversary of the bloodless revolution that catapulted his mother to the presidency and restored democracy. Aquino’s father, a vocal opponent of Marcos, was killed by unknown assassins during those years. 

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Simone Orendain

February 25, 2013

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US Ready To Disassemble Warship Stranded At Reef

With the Jascon 25 pipelay crane vessel now at the Tubbataha reef, a spokesman of the United States Navy (USN) said yesterday salvage personnel will begin disassembling and removing the stricken Guardian minesweeper as soon as possible.
Lt. Frederick Martin, the USN Combined Task Unit (CTU) Guardian public affairs officer, gave the Manila Bulletin a summary of their salvage plan.
He stressed though that "individual steps, such as when to begin disassembling portions of the Guardian, are decisions made by the on-scene salvage experts based on weather and conditions at the site."
According to the USN officer, "Jascon 25, a dynamic positioning crane, has arrived in the area. This crane does not need to anchor, so it is expected to be able to operate where the other crane, Smit Borneo, could not. It also has a higher lifting capacity, needed to remove some sections of Guardian."
"Once the Jascon completes the Philippine Customs process and aligns and tests its dynamic positioning system, weather permitting, Smit salvage personnel will begin disassembling and removing the Guardian with the crane," he said.
In an email to the Manila Bulletin, Martin also provided a rough outline of the current salvage plan, but made it clear that "it will probably change as it is executed."
"It  is important to understand that the plan is constantly changing and being refined as the operation continues. The salvage of USS Guardian is extremely complex, and is affected by a wide variety of factors, including weather and the continued structural degradation of Guardian itself," Martin explained.
Marine salvage is a dynamic operation and operational plans will need to be adjusted as circumstances change," he added.
When the dismantling of the Guardian begins, Martin said topside equipment will be removed first, followed by masts, funnel and other accessible equipment and portions of the ship.
"Throughout the process, protection of the environment and mitigation of environmental risk will be a significant consideration, alongside safety of personnel," he said.
"Next, once loose material has been removed, we expect to begin removing the ship's superstructure - the part of the ship above the main deck.  Sections will be cut free and lifted with the Jascon crane, again with consideration of protecting the marine environment," Martin said.
Once the superstructure is removed, heavy machinery and equipment will be removed from inside the ship.
The USN spokesman said they have already removed the fuel and most of the other hazardous materials from the ship, and will monitor the removal of this equipment to ensure any remaining material is appropriately contained.
"Once the hull is mostly empty, we expect to begin to cut it into sections that can be secured and lifted.  Our current estimate is that we will remove the hull in three sections.  The bow and stern will be removed as intact pieces; however, the middle section will need to be removed in a piecemeal fashion as the structure lacks the strength to lift intact," he said.
The ship will be disassembled using a combination of hydraulic and pneumatic saws, grinders, cutters, and other equipment.
As equipment and sections of the ship are removed, they will be transferred to a barge or deck of the crane for further work.
The spokesman said, however, that they have not yet determined the final disposition of Guardian.
"Again, this entire plan is provisional, and based on what we know of the current conditions.  As we conduct the operation, we may find we need to alter the plan, possibly significantly.  We are working to remove the Guardian safely, while minimizing risk to the environment, and as quickly as those other considerations allow," said Martin.
He also reiterated that the salvage plan continues to emphasize safety and protection of the environment.
"Throughout the operation the salvage experts will alter procedures as necessary to protect personnel and the Tubbataha Reef ecosystem," stated USN spokesman.

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Stand-off between Philippine government and followers of Sultan of Sulu

Manila: A stand-off has occurred between Philippine government officials and followers of Sultan of Sulu who raided Sabah last week to pursue a Filipino-Muslim family’s claims over the territory which dates back to the 17th century.

“We are endeavouring to have the group [of Sultan Jamalul Kiram] leave Lahad Datu [in Sabah] peacefully and this remains to be a work in progress in coordination with the Malaysian government. We want this issue to be settled in a peaceful manner,” said Raul Hernandez, assistant secretary and spokesman of Manila’s foreign affairs department.

“What is important for now is for them to leave that area because this could affect existing issues we have including peace talks [between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation front or MILF which is brokered by Malaysia] and possible bilateral relations [between the Philippines and Malaysia, which are both members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or Asean],” said Hernandez.

Earlier, Kiram confirmed that he approved the sending of 400 (not 300) Filipino-Muslims, including 20 armed men, to Lahad Datu district last week, to enforce his family’s ancestral ownership over the area.

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