During the consultations, armed men showed up to arrest Echanis. He was charged with 15 counts of murder of suspected government spies within the communist New People’s Army (NPA) during 1984, which led to the discovery of alleged mass graves in Leyte.

It was January 28, mere days after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo extended the term of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief Hermogenes Esperon, who had vowed to render the communist insurgency “inconsequential” by 2010. He declared that the next few months would be “bloody,” and called the capture of Echanis “a big blow to the communist movement.”

Crime and politics
Echanis is not the only political prisoner of the Arroyo regime (see sidebar). There are currently 240 prisoners in detention by the count of Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA), an organization dedicated to helping political prisoners.

SELDA defines political prisoners as “men and women who, as a consequence of their political work and organizational affiliations [are] arrested, captured or abducted, tried… and sent to prison.”

During Martial Law, antiquated policies like the Anti-Subversion Law (ASL) tagged activism and political dissent as “subversive” acts punishable by imprisonment. Enacted in 1957, the ASL was junked under President Fidel Ramos, although the Arroyo administration later tried but failed to revive it.
Donato Continente, SELDA spokesperson and a political prisoner for 16 years, pointed out that crimes against persons are easier to fabricate than crimes against the public order, leading to a growing number of “criminalized” political prisoners.

“Rebellion” under the revised penal code entails “rising publicly and taking arms against the Government,” which excludes unarmed and legal leftist organizations. Thus, the Arroyo administration takes a different tack, filing criminal charges like murder against political foes of the government.

This was illustrated during February 2006, at the height of Arroyo’s declared State of Emergency. Over 50 leftist leaders, including Echanis, were charged with rebellion. The SC dismissed the charges with finality in July, stressing that even if the accused were indeed members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) — which was never actually proven — “mere membership in the CPP does not constitute rebellion.”

This violates a landmark 1956 ruling by the SC — known as the Amado Hernandez doctrine, named after the defendant in the case — which prohibits the prosecution of a person for committing a common crime in alleged furtherance of rebellion.

Serving time
It was not the only time that Echanis was targeted for state persecution.
He has been arrested thrice since he first began working as a peasant organizer in the countryside. The first time was in 1983, under then President Ferdinand Marcos. Echanis was arrested without a warrant, held in solitary confinement for years, and released after the EDSA Revolution.
Dozens of his fellow political prisoners stayed imprisoned, however, and dozens more were detained under the new president, Corazon Aquino, prompting Echanis to join SELDA. # Philippine Collegian

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