MANILA, 19 January 2007 — Philippine lawmakers and local executives crossed party lines to denounce the use of excessive force by police in a vain attempt to evict a provincial governor who has refused step down after being dismissed on graft charges.

Even the chief of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) expressed alarm and ordered an investigation for possible violation of the human rights of the followers of Niel Tupas Jr., governor of the Iloilo province in the central Philippines.

“The use of excessive force against unarmed civilians, including women, is completely unjustified. This fiasco at the Iloilo Capital has given the Arroyo government another black eye before the international community,” said Sen. Franklin Drilon, president of the Liberal Party and an ally of the governor.

The chair of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) said local executives were also concerned that that due process was being ignored by those enforcing the law against those either dismissed or suspended from the service.

In television footage shown by ABS-CBN Wednesday night and on Thursday, heavily armed police officers were seen destroying padlocks and threatening followers of Tupas who have barricaded themselves at the Iloilo capitol building, an incident described by CHR Chairwoman Purificacion Quisumbing as “very shocking.”

The police were called to enforce an order of Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno to forcibly remove Tupas from the capitol after the governor refused to step down .

Tupas was one of several local executives dismissed or suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman on Jan. 16, eve of the start of election campaign period for the May 14 election, raising suspicion of ill motives by the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The Ombudsman had also dismissed Mayor Antonio Prospero Esquivel Jr. of Jaen, Nueva Ecija, and Pasay City Mayor Wenceslao “Peewee” Trinidad, while and Batangas Gov. Armand Sanchez has been placed under preventive suspension..

Tupas managed to get a temporary restraining order from the court on Wednesday, but not before heavily armed commandos forcibly entered his office on the third floor of the capitol in an attempt to force him out.

CHR chief Quisumbing said the operation may be considered an abuse of power.

“It is shocking to see our policemen going into a public building with assault rifles and long firearms and in a manner not consonant with the picture we are trying to portray of a peaceful country of law-abiding citizens,” she said.

“When our police behave like military personnel entering a combat zone when they go into a public building, breaking doors, with pointed guns and appear to be ready to shoot, there is a threat to public safety,” she added.

‘Worse Than Martial Law’

Drilon has asked said the Senate Committee on Public Order and the Committee on Local Government, headed by Sen. Alfredo Lim — a former police general — to also conduct an investigation.

“This is even worse than martial law. The Arroyo administration is making a mockery of the constitutional guarantee to due process and a fair and speedy trial,” said Drilon, whose ties with Tupas is seen to have placed the governor under the sights of Arroyo’s hatchetmen.

Drilon and some members of the Liberal Party openly called for the resignation of Arroyo in mid-2005 when copies of wiretapped tapes suggesting that she cheated in the 2004 presidential elections were made public.

Arroyo, however, managed to cling on to power, propped up by her dominant supporters in the House of Representatives, who had killed impeachment bids in 2005 and last year.

Former LP President Florencio “Butch” Abad, one of Arroyo’s Cabinet officials who withdrew support of the president in 2005, said Malacañang was trying to eliminate some of its strongest opponents like Tupas, who has the support of his province with no serious contenders for the governorship.

“This is just the opening of the political season and if this is already the acts being undertaken at this early stage, you can expect things to even get worse,” said Abad.

He said Tupas withdrew his support for President Arroyo following the “Hello Garci” controversy.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Trenas, who chairs the LCP, said the country’s mayors, vice mayors, and councilors would discuss in a general assembly tomorrow the cases of their colleagues who have either been suspended or dismissed from office and would formulate a common stand about the need to observe due process.

“What we are more concerned (with) is that due process should be observed in the service of suspension and termination orders. We want to make sure that there is due process and there is no use of superior strength in the service of this process,” Trenas told reporters in an interview at the national convention of the LCP in Manila Hotel.

Iloilo Rep. Rolex Suplico of the administration’s Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino echoed the call for an investigation in the incident, which he called “an overkill.”

“I have never seen a blitzkrieg take-over of a government facility as what happened in Iloilo yesterday (Wednesday), I call for the immediate transfer out of Iloilo of the PNP officers and men involved in the operation,” said Suplico of the province’s fifth district.

Defiant Puno

Secretary Puno remained unperturbed by the outrage, threatening suspended or dismissed local officials who refuse to leave their posts with sedition charges.

“Whenever we see a takeover of a public facility and a refusal to allow lawfully constituted authority to enter the facility, that is the textbook definition of sedition,” Puno said in a press conference.

“You look at the definition of the laws on sedition, these are seditious acts. And sedition is a very serious crime,” he said.

Justifying the forcible entry by police, Puno said, the action “appeared to have been correct” and that the PNP was “obligated to maintain law and order.”

Puno said that when Chief Superintendent Wilfredo Dulay, police regional director, went to the capitol, armed provincial jail guards have been deployed by the governor.

“They were apparently acting as a security group there...these are normal precautions taken when a PNP group assesses a situation,” said Puno.

Puno said Tupas allegedly owned three licensed pistols while his son had nine firearms. There were machine pistols and assault weapons as well, he added. (With reports by the Inquirer News Service)