PRESS STATEMENT OF SENATOR M.A. MADRIGAL

I filed in 2006 a Senate resolution seeking an investigation in aid of legislation on the illegal arrests and detention of the "Tagaytay 5" (Aristides Sarmiento, Axel Alejandro Pinpin, Riel Custodio, Enrico Ybanez and Michael Masayes) all peasant farmer leaders in Cavite who were forcibly, illegally and violently abducted in Tagaytay City, at sundown of 28 April 2006, by no less than thirty (30) to forty (40) heavily armed personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP). Afterwards they were tortured and subjected to investigation and criminal prosecution in flagrant and indiscriminate violation of their fundamental constitutional rights.

The "Tagaytay 5" believe they were persecuted because they actively participated in gathering evidence to support the Senate investigation on the infamous fertilizer scam orchestrated by the Arroyo government through former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc-Joc" Bolante.

Now that the cases against the "Tagaytay 5" have been dismissed by the Court, I seek an immediate reinvestigation on the fertilizer scam by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and the Committee on Agriculture and Food. This will in effect allow the Tagaytay five to testify in favor of the farmers in Cavite who claimed that they never received a single centavo from the fertilizer fund allegedly released to them by Government.