Wife shows hubby’s PhilHealth, SSS cards to prove he’s no Red

The wife of a security guard arrested by the military for being a Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) leader called on the Court of Appeals Friday to release her husband, whom she said was a victim of “mistaken identity.”

Appearing before the Court of Appeals’ 5th Division, Marites Chioco submitted her common-law husband Rolly Panesa’s birth certificate, baptismal certificate, school records, records of his employment, Social Security System and PhilHealth cards, driver’s license and NBI clearance to refute the military’s claims that he has been leading a double life.

Cioco also submitted a certificate showing that Panesa underwent training for the government’s Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit, an irregular auxiliary force of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“These are all government-issued documents and not one government agency has come out to say that these are fake. The AFP should admit its error because of arbitrariness in arrest Panesa,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of the human rights alliance Karapatan, who attended the hearing.

Presiding Justice Rosemarie Carandang ordered the AFP lawyers to present the military’s dossier on a certain Benjamin Mendoza in the next hearing set Feb. 5. Palabay said Panesa would sit on the witness stand the same day.

Panesa was arrested in Quezon City by AFP Southern Luzon Command operatives on Oct. 5, 2012. The military claimed he was Mendoza, alleged secretary of CCP’s Southern Tagalog regional committee and a member of the CPP’s central committee.

Chioco claimed her husband was tortured to admit he was Mendoza, showing to the media a picture of her husband with a swollen face and bruised eye and lips.