Quezon youth activist not in jail, says Army exec
Alexandrea Pacalda. Photo from her Facebook account
LUCENA CITY –– Alleged New People’s Army (NPA) surrenderer Alexandrea Pacalda was not being held against her will in a military camp in Quezon province, according to Capt. Benedict Alfonso Cagatin, a civil-military officer of the Army’s 201st Infantry Brigade based in Calauag, Quezon.
“She is not inside a jail. She’s not being detained. She’s free to return home to her family,” Cagatin said.
He said Pacalda could freely leave the camp after she finished the routine “procedures” as a rebel surrenderer.
He, however, politely declined to explain the supposed “procedures.” He also did not set a timetable for its completion.
“As a surrenderer, there are procedures that she has to undergo to prepare her reintegration to the mainstream of the society,” Cagatin explained.
He added: “A surrenderer is not allowed to return to her family at once. But her loved ones could visit and stay with her inside the camp any time.”
He said other visitors were “subject to discretion.”
Cagatin said Pacalda was being interviewed by military officials. “As for media interview, she said she’s not yet ready,” he said.
Pacalda’s lawyer Maria Sol Taule from the National Union of People’s Lawyer politely declined to be interviewed when the Inquirer reached her online but said she would issue a statement soon.
On Wednesday, the military released Pacalda’s affidavit where she admitted being a member of the NPA and she was surrendering because she wanted to “live a normal life.”
The affidavit was executed on Sept. 17 and notarized by lawyer Meyrick Andrew Oseña in the town of Lopez, Quezon.
The affidavit said Pacalda confessed to being an NPA member “freely and voluntarily without being forced, threatened, harassed, coerced, and/or promised of (sic) any form of reward.”
She said she turned herself in to soldiers from the 85th Infantry Battalion and policemen in General Luna on Sept. 15. She also surrendered a revolver with six bullets./lzb
