Police admit to holding 9 activists
By Niña Catherine Calleja, Delfin Mallari Jr.
Southern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 02:28:00 09/02/2008
CALAMBA CITY, LAGUNA – The Regional Special Operations Group of the Calabarzon police admitted to holding nine activists who were reported missing on Sunday.
Senior Supt. Wilfredo Reyes, head of RSOG-Calabarzon, said the group served as a custodial unit of the nine arrested at a checkpoint in Silang, Cavite, by members of the Cavite police.
Arrested were Renato Alvarez, 63; Yolanda Caraig, 48; Neshley Cresino, 27; Franco Romeroso, 27; Felip Nardo, 24; Bernardo Derain, 36; Janice Javier, 26; Mario Joson, 55; and Jommel Igana, 19.
Cavite police director Senior Supt. Hernando Zafra confirmed that the nine were arrested in a joint operation of Cavite and Calabarzon police.
He told the Inquirer that they were “related” to left-wing groups. He refused to give details as he described the case as “sensitive.”
Reyes, however, said the police had not yet made conclusions that the nine were members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA).
He even said in a phone interview that one of them looked like a “commercial model” and another, a teacher.
The nine were still being investigated as police claimed recovering firearms from them.
No charges
No case has yet been filed in court against them.
Reyes said they would be released if no case was filed. “I know we can be charged with arbitrary detention,” he said.
The RSOG-Calabarzon has been detaining the activists since Sunday at around 3:30 p.m.
In a phone interview on Sunday, Reyes had repeatedly denied to the Inquirer that the RSOG-Calabarzon was holding suspected NPA members.
Aris Sarmiento, one of the “Tagaytay 5” who was just released from prison after their rebellion case was dismissed, said the activists failed to show up for a meeting in Nasugbu, Batangas.
The activists were supposed to be there at 8 a.m. to discuss a campaign plan against land-use conversion in time for Farmers’ Week in October.
According to Sarmiento, Alvarez is the president of the Kalipunan ng mga Magsasaka sa Kabite (Kamagsasaka-Ka or Farmers’ Confederation in Cavite), of which he is a consultant, while four of those arrested were organizers of the group.
According to Kamagsasaka-Ka, the nine who were on board a yellow multicab left the house of Alvarez in Barangay Tartaria in Silang at around 3:30 a.m on Sunday.
Sarmiento said their whereabouts could not be traced and all of their mobile phones had been turned off.
Search
Dianne Mariano of the human rights group Cavite Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace said the police did the same thing to “Tagaytay 5” two years ago.
Sarmiento and farmer-activists Axel Pinpin and Riel Custodio, and their drivers Michael Masayes and Rico Ybañez were abducted in early 2006 and held incommunicado for several days. They were later presented by police as alleged NPA members on a terrorist mission in Manila and charged with rebellion.
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