BY EVANGELINE DE VERA

THE Supreme Court yesterday moved to March 30 oral arguments for a petition filed by detained Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo questioning the issuance of arrest warrants against him.

The Court also said Ocampo, who is facing murder charges, will continue to be detained at the Manila Police District until further notice.

The hearing was originally scheduled for today.

The PNP on Monday attempted to bring Ocampo to Leyte where a judge issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with communist purging operations in the ‘80s. The warrant was issued following the discovery of a mass grave in Inopacan, Leyte, in August last year, which contains the remains of alleged victims of a communist party purge.

Ocampo was arrested Friday last week after filing his petition with the Supreme Court.

The tribunal, in a two-page resolution following a special en banc session, also granted Ocampo’s handwritten request to attend the oral arguments.

The high court likewise gave the OSG until March 28 to file its comment on Ocampo’s petition.

Last Wednesday, Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera, representing the Department of Justice, asked the tribunal for an extension of 15 days to file a comment.

Ocampo, in a phone interview, said he was not too happy with the Court’s decision to grant the OSG’s motion for extension because this will give government more time to develop the case against him.

"Alam nilang mahina ang kaso nila sa akin kaya humahanap pa sila ng ebidensya. Magfa-fabricate na naman sila ng mga bagong ebidensya laban sa akin," he said.

Ocampo said the SC should have ruled once and for all if his arrest was legal or not. He said the murder charges against him were trumped up as part of a crackdown on left-wing activists.

"Kung illegal ang warrant, malaya na ako dapat," he said.

Ocampo said in his letter request to the SC, he asked for a change of venue, fearing he might not get a fair trial before the Leyte court. Neri Colmenares, lawyer of Ocampo, said while they welcome the SC’s order for the lawmaker to remain at the MPD headquarters, his client should not suffer continuing detention because of government’s inability to argue his case.

"The fact that the Solgen is not ready to argue shows that the evidence is weak and difficult to defend. But it’s a victory that the SC preempted the move of the police to transport Ka Satur to Leyte," he said.

The police brought Ocampo back to Manila after Leyte Judge Ephrem Abando said he can stay in Manila until the High Court rules on his petition.

Ocampo has submitted a complaint to United Nations special rapporteur Martin Scheinin on his arrest and detention.

Scheinin is the UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism.

"The Philippine version of the Anti-Terrorism Act, euphemistically titled the Human Security Act of the Philippines, is set to be implemented in July 2007. Yet government authorities have already disregarded the observance of due process and the rights of the accused, in cases against government critics tagged as enemies of the state," Ocampo said in his four-page complaint sent to Scheinin’s office in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ocampo said the "trumped-up charges," the killing of around 130 Bayan Muna members and other forms of harassment are intended to discredit him and his party-list group, noting Bayan Muna consistently topped the party-list elections in 2001 and 2004.

He also complained about the police’s attempt to transfer him early morning of Monday to Hilongos, Leyte.

"I was manhandled and forcibly placed inside a police van, and brought to the domestic airport, to the hangar of the Philippine National Police. With my wife and Bayan Muna colleague Rep. Teodoro Casiño, I was put on board a private plane for a flight to Leyte," Ocampo said.

The plane received orders to return to Manila while over Masbate.

Ocampo said he learned that in a Cabinet security meeting on March 18, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, and AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon "overturned the earlier decision of the interior department and the national police to allow me to stay in Manila until after March 23." he added. – With Reinir Padua