ShareThisPASAY CITY – The Senate committee on peace, unification and reconciliation has suspended its deliberation on the amnesty program under Proclamation No. 75 after it found out that Sen. Gregorio Honasan and several high-ranking members of Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front are included in a list of “beneficiaries” of the program.
Sen. Teofisto Guingona III said the list of beneficiaries was mired with “inconsistencies.”
The expected beneficiary of the amnesty grant at the Senate is Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV who remains in detention.
Also in the list are civil society leader Pastor Saycon, former ambassador Roy Seneres; Prudencio Calubid, a member of the CPP Central Committee and consultant in the negotiating panel of the National Democratic Front; Leo Velasco, also an NDFP consultant in the peace process; Edelberto Silva, whose name the military got from the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees; Tirso Alcantara, head of NPA’s Melito Glor Command operating in Southern Tagalog; and Jess Fernandez, alleged communist leader who served in Honasan’s staff and who died in 2007.
Also listed were Don Pepe Araneta and Jaime Regalario, described in the list as businessmen; Magdalo lawyers Roberto Rafael Pulido, Christopher Belmonte, and Renato Constantino; and former UP president Francisco “Dodong” Nemenzo.
“I would like to admonish the executive branch to get their act together,” said Guingona as he suspended the hearing.
Honasan said he was not part of the Marines standoff in February 2006, contrary to the list submitted by the executive branch. He said he was charged in connection with the Oakwood mutiny but the case has been dismissed by the court.
He said he might just apply for amnesty if Malacañang would insist on including him in the list.
At the Department of Justice, Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon said Honasan has a pending criminal case before the DOJ for his alleged participation in the Marines standoff.
He said Honasan stands charged for coup d’état but the preliminary investigation was indefinitely suspended in 2007.