On February 9, National Democratic Front peace consultants Benito and Wilma Tiamzon were brought to Manila Regional trial Court Branch 32 to hear the direct examination of the prosecution’s witness Police Superintendent Edwin Zata. Zata claimed he was among those who responded during the exhumation of the supposed skeletal remains in a “mass grave” in Inopacan, Leyte.
On February 9, National Democratic Front peace consultants Benito and Wilma Tiamzon were brought to Manila Regional trial Court Branch 32 to hear the direct examination of the prosecution’s witness Police Superintendent Edwin Zata. Zata claimed he was among those who responded during the exhumation of the supposed skeletal remains in a “mass grave” in Inopacan, Leyte.
Zata was put on the witness stand for the identification of clothes, which the military supposedly found in the “mass grave”. The clothes were part of the evidence offered by the prosecution together with the “travelling skeletons.”
Judge Thelma Medina directly asked questions to the witness and stressed that the chain of custody of the pieces of evidence is important to determine whether the evidence presented in court are the same as those found in the grave site.
However, Zata said there were already diggings and the bones were already unearthed 10 days before he arrived at the so-called mass grave. He also confirmed the presence of military and members of the paramilitary group CAFGU in the area. The bones, he said, were already in the custody of the AFP before they were turned over to the PNP Crime Laboratory. He also said that the clothes were soaked in soap and water overnight and washed to remove the mud.
The government is expert at concocting pieces of evidence that are highly questionable to desperately indict spouses Tiamzon and their other co-accused in the case,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.
Palabay also said the case of this so-called ‘mass grave’ is a remnant of the Gloria Arroyo regime, which BS Aquino gamely pursued. Zata confirmed that it was Arroyo’s Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (IALAG) which requested for the Scene of the Crime Operatives to look into the “mass graves.” The IALAG was abolished because of the strong recommendations of UN Special Rapporteur Prof. Philip Alston on the role of the said agency in heaping trumped up charges against activists and peace consultants, with impunity and without due process. On Dec. 3, 2014, Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32 downgraded Zata from an “expert witness” to an “ordinary witness.”
Also, NDFP consultants like Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon were maliciously arrested in violation of the standing peace agreements between the GPH and the NDFP, especially the GPH-NDFP agreement on safety and immunity guarantees or the JASIG,” Palabay added.
In December 12, 2012, the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued a DND-DILG Joint Order on Reward (JOR) no. 14(A)-2012 amending the earlier DND-DILG JOR 14-2012, which removed the name of Wilma Austria-Tiamzon and four others based on JASIG and “in recognition of the pending peace negotiations and conditions upon the existence of said peace negotiations”. The JOR was put in place three months after Mar Roxas took over the DILG in August 2012.
The regime cannot argue on the soundness and justness of the arguments to release the political prisoners because the charges against them are unfounded and fabricated. Also, Wilma Tiamzon should be immediately released on humanitarian grounds because of her medical condition,” said Palabay. Austria-Tiamzon has been under close watch of her doctors because of her carotid artery oclusion and cervical spondylolisthesis.