BAGUIO CITY – Human rights advocates and relatives of a missing activist said they have strong suspicions that the military has abducted him.

James Balao, a member of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, has been missing since Sept. 17. He left his house in Barangay Fairview here but failed to return home or contact his family since.

Jude Baggo, secretary general of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA), said a military informant told them that Balao has been classified as a communist leader.

Baggo said the informant said the military has identified Balao as the head of the Communist Party of the Philippines’ education bureau in the Ilocos and Cordillera.

But in a press forum on Tuesday, Balao’s relatives and leaders of militant groups denied that he is a communist leader.

Under surveillance

“James is not a member of the CPP-NPA (New People’s Army). And whatever his political involvement is, he should not be abducted or treated in that manner. What the family wants is for the military to surface him,” Baggo said.

Winston Balao, a brother of Balao, said men in two vans had trailed his brother before he disappeared last week. “He told us that he was under surveillance. He has a source who told him he was being trailed,” he said.

Lawyer Jennifer Asuncion, a member of the Free Legal Assistance Group, said the CPA wrote the Armed Forces’ Intelligence Security Unit here, asking them the whereabouts of Balao.

In the letter, Beverly Longid, CPA chair, asked the ISU to present Balao and allow his family and coworkers to speak to him.

In a written reply, Cpl. Ricky Sabio, the letter’s recipient, said: “That I do not have any knowledge of James Balao who was missing since Sept. 17, 2008.”

Asuncion said the group also went to the office of the Military Intelligence Group in Camp Allen here to inquire about Balao’s whereabouts.

But an official of the MIG denied that Balao was in their custody.