A Nueva Ecija court has dumped the murder charges against four left-leaning former lawmakers for lack of probable cause, their lawyer said Monday.
Rachel Pastores said the Palayan Regional Trial Court dismissed the charges against Gabriela Women’s Party representative and now National Anti-Poverty Commission lead convener Liza Maza, former Anakpawis representative and former Agrarian Reform secretary Rafael Mariano, and former Bayan Muna representatives Satur Ocampo and Teddy Casiño.
The court issued an arrest warrant against the suspects on July 11 due to the alleged murder of the supporters of the rival party-list group, Akbayan.
Lawmakers on Monday welcomed the court’s dismissal of the charges against Maza, Mariano, Ocampo, and Casiño.
“We thank Judge [|Trece] Wenceslao for his impartiality and for not succumbing to the pressures to act against the Makabayan 4 and for dismissing these clearly preposterous trumped-up charges,” Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate said.
“Those behind these harassment charges should be held accountable,” Zarate said.
He said Citizens’ Crime Watch group member Ferdinand Topacio should be among those held accountable “for unnecessarily putting the security and lives of the Makabayan 4 in jeopardy.”
Topacio earlier said “concerned citizens” had raised the reward money and coursed it through Citizens’ Crime Watch.
Zarate said “At the very least, we challenge him [Topacio] to donate the P4-million bounty he supposedly raised against the progressive leaders to the evacuees hit by the torrential rain in [Metro Manila] and other areas,” Zarate said.
Gabriela Party-list Reps. Emmi de Jesus and Arlene Brosas said the dismissal of the murder charges and the dumping of the arrest warrants against Maza and the others was “a victory against political persecution.”
They said the Aug. 8 decision issued by Wenceslao “also effectively quashes all the black propaganda by the Palace and President [Rodrigo] Duterte’s supporters against the progressive leaders.”