US President Barrack Obama dared: Denounce RP president over torture of Fil-Am activist

US President Barrack ObamaBarrack Obama dared: Denounce RP president over torture of Fil-Am activist

Manila, Philippines- The chairperson of the left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Tuesday urged US President Barrack Obama to denounce President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the military establishment over the alleged torture of Fil-Am activist Melissa Ocampo by military agents of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

In a press statement, Pamalakaya chair Fernando Hicap said Obama is politically, legally and morally obliged to issue a strongly worded statement assailing President Arroyo and the AFP for the politically motivated abduction and torture of Ocampo, an American by citizenship who came to the Philippines for exposure and research program.

"US President Obama should come to the picture and assail President Arroyo and her national security syndicate in Malacañang to the highest order for torturing Ocampo. The White House made a super political monster out of Arroyo by endorsing its policy of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the name of Washington's war on terror," said Hicap.

Hicap said his group is wondering why up to now, the populist US president has yet to issue a statement involving the torture of Ocampo.

"Obama's silence on the Ocampo torture is really bothering and mind-boggling. We hope Obama would do his assignment and castigate the Washington puppets in Malacañang and the AFP and tell them to stop their madness and eternal thirst for the blood of political activists," he said.

The Pamalakaya leader said his group is planning to write the US Senate and the House of Representatives to conduct their own investigation on the abduction and torture of Ocampo, who is an American citizen.

"Definitely we will write the American leadership of both chambers of US Congress. This is one way of showing our full support to Ocampo and to all victims of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration," said Hicap.

According to Pamalakaya, the letter will be finalized this week by the national executive committee members of the fisherfolk alliance and will be sent not later than Friday through speed mail. Two years ago, Pamalakaya wrote a letter to Speaker of the US House of Representatives, urging top house leaders to address the issue of political killings of activists under the Arroyo administration.

The 31-year old Fil-Am in a press conference last Sunday in Los Angles, California burst into sobs as she publicly recounted on how a group of men she said were military agents tortured her to the point she would die. Ocampo, a member of the US chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said she was planning to sue her torturers before a US court.

CHR (Commission on Human Rights) chair Leila de Lima yesterday asked Ocampo to come back to the Philippines to testify, saying a recent inspection of a military camp tended to validate her physical description of the place where she was tortured last May. #