Labor union leader released from jail

Press Release
By KATUNGOD-SB-KARAPATAN
October 16, 2010

TACLOBAN CITY  –  Last October 13, 2010, by order of the Regional Trial Court Branch 8, Tacloban City, labor union leader and Anakpawis Partylist Nominee Vincent “Bebot” Borja was released from the Tacloban City Jail.

It can be remembered that Borja was arrested last May 7, 2007 in Ormoc City by the elements of the 19th Infantry Battalion led by then Battalion Commander Col. Lope Dagoy using the warrant of arrest of a certain “Tata Borja”. He was subsequently detained at Ormoc City Jail and was later on transferred to Tacloban City Jail and was made to face a murder charge.

During the last hearing, witnesses appeared and testified in open court that Bebot Borja is not Tata Borja, the principal accused in the case. In that juncture, the court has no recourse but to release Bebot Borja.

The arrest of Borja and the rest of the political prisoners in the Region and in the country is the result of the implementation of the Oplan Bantay Laya II wherein its legal component includes making and filing trumped up cases against leaders and members of the progressive organizations and partylists.

As of the today, the region has a total of 15 political prisoners, six of them were females.

The release of Vincent “Bebot” Borja only goes to show that these trumped up cases will eventually be dismissed. The implementers of OBL II and the succeeding counter-insurgency programs of the State can never silence the people in its struggle for human rights, genuine land reform and national industrialization.

Onwards with the struggle!

Free all political prisoners!