SEN. PIA BREAKS SILENCE ON POLITICAL ISSUES;
HITS GOV'T HARASSMENT VS. KA SATUR

Senator Pia S. Cayetano today broke her usual silence on political issues, criticizing the Arroyo government for "senselessly training its attention and resources" to the spurious multiple murder charges it filed against Bayan Muna Representative Satur C. Ocampo.

Cayetano, who as a political newcomer in 2004 was among the senatorial candidates endorsed by Bayan Muna, said the government's efforts could have been put to better use had it moved to resolve the hundreds of cases of extrajudicial killings in the country instead.

"If only this administration would bother to put a piece of its attention to the series of extra-judicial killings, as it has uselessly done in the case of this spurious case against Ka Satur, then probably we'd be able to solve the unexplained deaths of hundreds of activists and journalists," commented the lady senator.

She said the government was still in a state of denial regarding the series of killings, which has drawn serious protests and statements of concern from the international community, including the United Nations, European Union and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), where Cayetano sits as First Vice President of the committee on women.

The senator, together with his brother, Genuine Opposition (GO) senatorial candidate Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano actually paid a visit to Ocampo in his detention cell at the Manila Police District on the night of March 19or just a few hours before the militant leader was forcibly carried by police authorities to take him on an expensive "joyride" to Leyte.

"I can't believe they'd do that to him because Ka Satur told us that night that the authorities had given him their commitment that they would allow him to attend the scheduled oral arguments at the Supreme Court," she said.