AJLPP Update

July 28, 2008

Free Filipino Political Prisoner Randall Echanis Now

Los Angeles- The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) and all its allied organizations in North America expresses deep and serious concern over the continued detention of a ranking officer of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)or the Peasant Movement of the Philippines- Randall Echanis and demand his immediate release.

On Tuesday, KMP Deputy Secretary for internal affairs Randall Echanis was transferred from the Palo Provincial Jail in Leyte to the Camp Crame Detention Center.

An AJLLP coordinator commented that “members are happy that at least he was transferred to Camp Crame in Manila from Hilongos Leyte.” Updates were received that at around 7 a.m., some 30 supporters of Echanis, peasant activists including his wife Erlinda, son Ramill and daughter Amanda, and other relatives and friends, trooped to the EDSA gate of Camp Crame to greet his arrival.”

The AJLPP seriously believes that Echanis, was falsely charged for murder in connection with mass graves discovered in Hilongos, Leyte. Like other NDF peace consultants who are languishing in jail, they are being unjustly targeted by the US-Arroyo regime. AJLPP fully supports position of the KMP chair Paeng Mariano and the Echanis family that the imprisonment of Echanis, was meant to “preserve the illegitimate, immoral and evil reign of President Arroyo.”

“The National Security Council headed by [President Gloria Macapagal] Arroyo and National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzalez are the lead actors in this perpetual persecution of Echanis. They are responsible for the illegal and unjust imprisonment of our colleague on the basis of trumped up charge created by Palace spin-doctors in the military and Department of Justice,” KMP national chairman Rafael Mariano said in a statement.

Echanis has been tagged by the military as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). He was arrested last January 28 by police and military agents on a warrant issued by the Leyte regional trial court in connection with the killing of 15 people in a reported purge within the CPP of suspected government agents in the 1980s. At that time, Echanis was detained as a political prisoner at the Marcos jail in Cagayan.

He was arrested in Bago City, Negros Occidental during the national conference of the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (Union of Agricultural Workers). Echanis was supporting the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill or House Bill 3059 authored by the late Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) representative Crispin Beltran.

But his relatives and supporters said government and military records will show Echanis was held in solitary confinement by the military at the time the alleged murders were committed. A Manila regional trial court has also dismissed all criminal charges filed by the Marcos government in the 1980s against Echanis. In 1992, a case of illegal possession of firearms against Echanis was again dismissed by the Manila RTC for lack of merit.

For more information about the AJLPP and the campaign to free all political prisoners, please call (213)241-0906, email@ajlpp@yahoo.com or visit our blogspot@alliancephilippines,blogspot.com