INQUIRER Global Nation

MANILA, Philippines -- The multiple murder case of jailed peasant leader Randall Echanis is going to be brought before the United Nations’ Human Rights Council as proof that the government continues to violate the human rights of activists, according to a militant lawmaker.

Anakpawis party-list Representative Rafael Mariano, who flew to Geneva, Switzerland Saturday for the hearing of the Inter-Parliamentary Union's Committee on Human Rights of Parliamentarians, said he would also stop by the office of the United Nations Human Rights Council to seek help for the 60-year-old Echanis.

Mariano said Echanis’s plight shows that the administration did not heed the recommendations of Philip Alston, the UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings.

“It is imperative to inform the UNHRC that the Arroyo government has not complied with any of the recommendations of Prof. Alston. In fact, extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, and the filing of fabricated cases persist,” Mariano said in a statement.

He also said Echanis’s arrest was the handiwork of the administration's Inter-Agency Legal Action Group, which Alston had recommended abolished.

The group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, which Mariano chairs, has denounced the case against Echanis, its deputy secretary general, as politically-motivated.

The late Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran has said Echanis’s arrest was part of the state's crackdown on perceived enemies of the state, but added that there was no evidence linking the peasant leader to murders.

Echanis’s arrest in January while he was consulting with farmers was for his multiple murder case in Leyte, in which he was accused of involvement in the deadly purge of the communist party's armed wing the New People's Army in the 1980s.

His co-accused in the case include Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo and the Communist Party of the Philippines' Jose Ma. Sison. He is presently detained at the Manila City Jail.

Mariano is also set to appear at the IPU's human rights hearing to be held from October 11 to 14. He is expected to speak on October 12 and give an update on the cases filed against six militant lawmakers from the House of Representatives.

The lawmakers are Mariano, Ocampo, Beltran, Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casino, Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza, and former Bayan Muna Rep. Joel Virador. They were dubbed the “Batasan 6” after they were charged with rebellion and accused of involvement in a plot to unseat President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The IPU earlier expressed its concern over the rebellion case, which was later thrown out by the Supreme Court, and called on lawmakers to ensure that their colleagues' rights are respected.

Mariano also intends to brief the IPU about the other criminal cases filed against lawmakers. These include the murder and kidnapping charges in Nueva Ecija against Mariano, Ocampo, Casino, and Maza. Of these cases, the kidnapping with murder case was dismissed, but the others are still pending.