Group says detained militant bore torture signs
By Romulo Ponte
Southern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 23:06:00 06/14/2008
STA. CRUZ, LAGUNA -- THE Anakpawis leader earlier reported missing, after he was abducted by government soldiers last Tuesday, is now detained at the Laguna provincial jail in this capital town and bore signs of torture, according to the Southern Tagalog human rights group Karapatan.
Raynaldo Lagunoy, 38, municipal coordinator of Anakpawis in San Pedro town, suffered several contusions, burns in a leg, wound in the lips, and injuries in the face while in captivity, said Doris Cuario, secretary general of Karapatan-ST.
Cuario said Lagunoy, who is facing charges of illegal possession of firearms and multiple frustrated murder, was abducted by the Army last June 10 in Barangay Lansay, Sitio Tabang, Cavinte town in Laguna.
An Army official, however, denied the charges of torture and abduction.
“The insistence of Karapatan on the issue of an alleged abduction is meant to hide Lagunoy’s membership in the New People’s Army. In fact, the running gun battle occurred in a very remote area in Kalayaan municipality and not Cavinti,” said Capt. Peter Garceniego Jr., 202nd Infantry Brigade civil-military operations officer of the Philippine Army in Laguna.
He said that after the soldiers captured Lagunoy following the armed encounter “he was very aggressive” and kept firing at soldiers in a bid to escape capture.
“Our soldiers opted to apply sufficient force to immobilize him instead of firing a shot that would have killed him,” explained Garceniego Jr.
Cuario said the family of Lagunoy will file a case at the Commission of Human Rights and a motion to quash the charges filed against him by government authorities.
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