CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna, Philippines —Two urban poor activists suspected of being communist leaders were arrested in a joint Police and Army operation in Bay, Laguna, on Tuesday afternoon, authorities confirmed on Wednesday.
Reports from the 202nd Brigade of the Philippine Army named the arrested suspects as Anabelle Bueno alias Rosita Malabanan, Nancy, Maksie, Sallie, Girlie; and the other one as a certain Lara or Fara.
Militant human rights group Karapatan, however, identified them as Evelyn Legaspi, a member of the regional council of the urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), and Pastora Latagan, a staff of Kadamay.
According to the Army’s report, the two were arrested in their rented apartment in Barangay Maitim in Bay at around 5:40 p.m. by the Joint AFP-PNP Intelligence Committee (JAPIC) team composed of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), the police Regional Peace and Security Company, and the Army’s 202nd Brigade and 1st Battalion.
Authorities claimed they recovered 15 improvised explosive sticks and four blasting caps from the suspects.
In a phone interview, the Brigade commander, Col. Aurelio Baladad, said the two were ranking officials of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
He said Bueno headed the CPP’s Regional Organization Department while Lara was its finance officer.
He said the two faced arrest warrants for multiple murders in two separate ambushes staged by communist rebels in Barangay Alcate in Victoria and Barangay Sabang in Pinamalayan, both in Oriental Mindoro in 2002 and 2003; and multiple frustrated and attempted murders when suspected rebels raided an Army patrol base in Barangay Magsaysay in Infanta, Quezon in 2010.
Karapatan Southern Tagalog secretary general Glednhyl Malaban condemned the arrest as “illegal and was based on trumped-up charges.”
She said Legaspi and Latagan both worked as coordinators in the urban poor communities in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), particularly on issues concerning women.
“We were told by the village officials (in Barangay Maitim) that they were arrested by police from Camp Vicente Lim (the regional police headquarters in Canlubang, Calamba City, Laguna). When we got there, they would not allow us to see them. The police said no such people were arrested,” Malabanan said.
In a phone interview on Wednesday, the CIDG regional director, Senior Supt. Bernabe Balba, confirmed they were holding the two women.
“We (also) have witnesses to confirm that they were one and the same with the names on the arrest warrant,” he said when asked to verify the identities of the women.
Karapatan is set to rally at the police regional headquarters on Wednesday to condemn the crackdown on militant groups in Southern Tagalog region.