PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

Condemn the gov't for jailing scapegoats - CPP
February 10, 2003

The continued incarceration of Ireneo and Ruperto Fajardo is unjust and cruel. It is but correct to immediately release them. It is an utterly condemnable practice of the military and police to use scapegoats to cover up their incompetence.

This was the reaction of Communist Party of the Philippines Spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal on the appeal of brothers Ireneo and Ruperto Fajardo to be released from jail for having been "wrongly convicted" for the kidnapping Japanese businessman Noboyuki Wakaoji.

"The military and police are unjust, hard-hearted and unrepenting. They knew very well that the Fajardo brothers are innocent of the crime they have been convicted of. Just like in the case of the 'Abadilla 5', the Fajardo brothers were used as scapegoats by the military to show they have solved the Wakaoji kidnapping case", Rosal added.

"The brains behind the Wakaoiji kidnapping has now been punished," Rosal said referring to the felling of Romulo Kintanar by the NPA on January 23, 2003.

"The hapless scapegoats should not suffer injustice for even a day longer," Rosal said. He called for "their immediate release and granting of restitutions for the 12 years of unjust incarceration, torture and medical and mental damages they suffered due to the grave brutality and inhuman conditions they have been subjected to," Rosal further said.

"We would like to express our deepest sympathy with the Fajardo brother and their families for having suffered cruel political incarceration. We apologize for having failed to promptly expose the military's crime of arresting them as scapegoats in 1991," Rosal also said.

Rosal said that Kintanar and his independent ganster empire "kept the CPP leadership in the dark" about the Wakaoji kidnapping. ###

Reference:
Anne Buenaventura
Media Officer
Cellphone Number: +63910-240-3553



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