HEARING ON PERJURY RAPS. National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. is joined by supporters outside the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court (MeTC) on Thursday (Feb. 20, 2020). Esperon attended the court's hearing on the perjury raps he filed against RMP national coordinator Elenita Belardo. (PNA photo by Benjamin Pulta)
MANILA -- The Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court (MeTC) on Thursday began hearing the perjury complaint filed by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. against an official of a group which allegedly has links to the communist movement.
Esperon attended the hearing presided by MeTC Branch 37 Judge Aimee Marie Alcera where accused Elenita Belardo, national coordinator of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP), pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The parties were directed to have their documentary evidence marked on Monday (Feb. 24) before a court officer.
The court will then proceed with the presentation of the prosecution's evidence on the next hearing.
In an information dated Nov. 8, 2019, Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Nilo Peñaflor ordered the filing of the charges against Belardo.
Esperon claimed that RMP officials along with others lied under oath in the petition of amparo and habeas corpus filed against the government, including him, before the Court of Appeals (CA).
The petition for amparo was subsequently dismissed by the appellate court.
Peñaflor said in the petition filed before the CA by alleged known front groups of the terrorist Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) that Belardo "knowingly made untruthful statements under oath" when she said the RMP is a "duly registered non-stock, non-profit organization."
"(I)n fact the accused very well knew that said allegations were false and untruthful as the certificate of registration of RMP was already revoked effective September 29,2003. At best, the aforesaid defense of good faith is purely evidentiary which may be threshed out in a full-blown trial,” he added.
He said he decided not to charge other members of other groups responsible since "although embodied in one petition (filed before the CA), (the other) respondents' overt acts of verifying the same are separate and distinct from one another and could certainly refer only to factual circumstances pertaining to… the organization which said (other) respondents were representing."
Aside from RMP, charged were Joan May E. Salvador and Gertrudes Libang as representatives of Gabriela and Reylan Vergara, Cristina Palabay, Ronco Clamor, Edita Burgos, Gabriela Krista Dalena, Jose Marie Callueng and Wilfredo Ruazol of Karapatan.
Esperon alleged that the RMP collected donations from international organizations to run 55 Salugpungan Ta’tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center Inc. (Salugpungan) whose operations were earlier ordered suspended by the Department of Education.
Citing reports of the military and police on the ground and the testimonies of the Mindanao Indigenous People's Counsel elders and leaders, Esperon said there was an unmistakable pattern of training anti-government armed rebels by these schools.
As an example, Esperon said these schools have a different "national" anthem which they teach to students.
Students are also taught assembly and disassembly of firearms and learn the alphabets with different anti-government slogans starting with "A for armas (weapon)".
Esperon said the schools do not issue credentials to students which would allow their wards to take further studies in government recognized schools.
The CPP-NPA has been listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines. (PNA)
