MANILA, Philippines?Army officials in Central Luzon said they were ready to attend hearings on the alleged abduction and torture by the military of Filipino-American activist Melissa Roxas and two others.

?We?re willing to attend the hearings if called by the courts and on orders of our general headquarters,? Maj. Gen. Ralph Villanueva said in an interview on the sidelines of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s visit here on Monday.

Villanueva, commander of the Army?s 7th Infantry Division, exercises control over troops in Central Luzon and runs Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) Monday said its special unit on extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances would seek an interview with Roxas, as police started probing her alleged abduction and torture.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) will hold its own investigation on July 23.

Roxas arrived at around 11 Monday night at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 on Northwest Airlines Flight NW-81 to attend the CHR probe and a Court of Appeals hearing next week.

She went to the United States after her release in May to be with her family and to recover from the trauma she suffered from her ordeal, according to Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr.

Roxas, a member of the US chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), has filed a petition for the issuance of the writ for amparo in the Supreme Court, which gave due course to the petition by referring it to the Court of Appeals.

The writ of amparo is a special legal instrument issued by the Supreme Court to protect people whose rights have been violated by government activities or acts of omission.

Hearing on July 30

The appellate court?s Special 16th Division said it would archive the case should Roxas fail to show up at its hearing on July 30. She did not appear at two previous hearings. Bayan said Roxas would attend the next hearing.

Roxas and her companions, Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Handoc, were abducted in Tarlac on May 19. She was released six days later.

Roxas said she and her companions were taken by their abductors to what she presumed was a military camp in Central Luzon.

In a press conference in Los Angeles, California, last month, Roxas said her tormentors had tried to suffocate her by pulling plastic bags over her head.

She said her interrogators told her that she was abducted because she was a member of the New People?s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

She denied the accusation, saying that she was a writer and volunteer on an exposure program in the Philippines.

Based on Roxas? account, she was detained at a military camp in Nueva Ecija, presumably Fort Magsaysay, according to Bayan.

Brig. Gen. Gene Pirino, commander of the 701st Infantry Brigade that operates in Tarlac, including La Paz town where Roxas was abducted by 15 armed men, said he was ready to face the courts.

Villanueva said he and his soldiers had nothing new to admit or deny in the incident. ?We have submitted our report [to the general headquarters last June]. It?s the same,? he told the Inquirer.

The report?s findings said no soldier belonging to the 7th ID was involved in the abduction and that Fort Magsaysay was not used to detain, interrogate or torture Roxas and her companions.

Pirino said his troops were not stationed or operating in La Paz at the time of the abduction. They were busy helping typhoon victims in nearby Pangasinan province, he said.

Officials of at least five Army units based in Fort Magsaysay have not issued statements on the incident.

Fact-finding mission

On her return to the Philippines, Roxas was to be accompanied by a delegation from the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church, which will conduct a human rights fact-finding mission.

The conference was the same church group that campaigned against extrajudicial killings in the Philippines that the US Senate eventually investigated in 2007.

Bayan said the CHR would provide Roxas with protective custody upon her request. Police also offered to provide security for Roxas while in the country.

The PNP said Task Force Usig would look into Roxas? charges that military agents seized and tortured her while surveying project areas for Bayan in May.

?Task Force Usig investigators will coordinate with local leaders of Bayan for the availability of Roxas to be interviewed by TFU investigators to unearth more information,? the PNP spokesperson, Senior Supt. Leonardo Espina, said Monday.

Espina said Task Force Usig, which handles cases of violence against government officials, journalists, activists and foreigners, was already on the ?initial stages? of investigating the case.

The task force has been relying mainly on the six-page affidavit Roxas executed on May 29 to seek protection from the Court of Appeals.

?The investigation of the alleged abduction and torture of Melissa Roxas is being handled by Task Force Usig for a more coordinated action by the different investigative units of the PNP including the CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group), Crime Laboratory, local police units and other national support units,? Espina said.

?We hail her courage in returning to the Philippines. Her determination to prove that she was abducted and tortured should put to rest claims by the military that the whole thing was fabricated,? Reyes said.

The Office of the Solicitor General and the military claimed Roxas? abduction never took place or that it was ?stage-managed? to embarrass the Arroyo administration.

?Her testimony will be important, especially now that killings and abductions are on the rise again just a year before the elections. Despite domestic and international criticism, the killings and disappearances continue,? Reyes said.

Roxas would testify at the Court of Appeals hearing on the same day that Ms Arroyo would be visiting US President Barack Obama in Washington.