Perjury case aims to expose groups’ deceptions: Esperon

MANILA -- National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. on Wednesday said the perjury case he filed against representatives of some so-called caused oriented organizations was meant to expose their deceptions about the legitimacy of their activities in the country.

“For so long a time, many of these so-called cause-oriented organizations have deceived the public into believing that their actions, especially those that are directed against the government, had been legitimate,” Esperon said.

“Some, in fact, had misled foreign funding institutions into giving foreign grants and donations to support their supposed cause, but were instead diverted to the CPP-NPANDF in furtherance of the latter’s communist terrorist objectives,” he added.

CPP-NPA-NDF stands for Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front, a 50-year-old organization listed as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

On Tuesday (July 2), Esperon filed perjury case against representatives of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP),

Karapatan and Gabriela before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office.

Esperon, also concurrent vice chairperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), accused the RMP of issuing false statement in their writs of amparo and habeas data petition against several government officials.

Contrary to RMP’s claims that it is a duly registered organization, Esperon said the group’s certificate of registration was revoked on August 20, 2003 for its failure to submit the required General Information Sheets and Financial Statements from 1997 to 2002.

He said the revocation took effect on September 29, 2003 based on a certification issued by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 15, 2019.

The respondents named in Esperon’s three-page affidavit complaint include Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay, Sr. Elenita Belardo, Romeo Clamor, Gabriela Krista Dalena, Editha Burgos, Jose Mari Callueng, Wilfredo Ruazol, Elisa Tita P. Lubi, Reylan B. Vergara, Sr. Maria Cupin, Joan May Salvador, and Gertrudes Ranjo-Liang. They all swore in the presence of a notary public that the RMP was a SEC-registered organization.