4 activists nabbed in Calabarzon; guns, explosives seized

LUCENA CITY — Four activists in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon provinces) region were arrested on Thursday in what the human rights group Karapatan warned as a renewed police crackdown against members of leftists groups.

Karapatan-Southern Tagalog chapter and the police both reported on the arrest of Garry Doroteo, Loreto Bolino, and couple Benito and Rosita Lucido. Karaparatan, in a statement, said the arrests were based on planted evidence and trumped-up charges concocted by the agents of governments, coming just about a month since nine activists were killed in simultaneous police raids in Laguna, Rizal, and Cavite.

But the regional police in Calabarzon, in a report released on Friday, said the arrest of the four was valid and supported by court-issued search warrants.

The report said Doroteo was arrested in the village of Sta. Ines in Tanay, Rizal, after a 4:30 a.m. search in his house allegedly yielded a .45-caliber pistol and an improvised explosive device (IED).

Bolino was arrested in Barangay Lumutan in General Nakar town in Quezon around 12:45 p.m. when a loaded .45-caliber pistol and two IEDs were found in her home, said the police.

Firearms, IEDs

Karapatan said Bolino, a Dumagat tribe member, was allegedly flown to an unknown destination aboard a helicopter after her arrest.

Police said the Lucido couple was nabbed by government forces in Barangay Macabud, Rodriguez, Rizal, when an around 5 a.m. search also yielded a loaded .45-caliber pistol, a .9mm-caliber Luger machine pistol, two improvised offensive grenades, and an improvised landmine.

The report claims Rosita also yielded one .22-caliber Magnum revolver without a serial number.

The regional police also reported that government forces armed with search warrants also conducted operations against a Rosita de la Cruz in Tanay, a Toto Villanueva in Rodriguez, and a Christopher Bohol in General Nakar. However, the suspects were not around and had been declared as “at large” after the raiders reportedly found almost the same type of weapons and explosives in their houses.

Alert

According to environmentalist group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE), Doroteo is also a Dumagat who has been opposing the construction of the controversial Kaliwa dam project in the Sierra Madre mountain ranges in General Nakar and Tanay.

Karapatan said Benito was the president of the Integrated Association of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries who also chaired the peasant group Anakpawis in 2016.

In a statement on Friday, Kalikasan PNE national coordinator Leon Dulce said the arrest came just hours after Kaparatan alerted them of a reliable information they received that another “Bloody Sunday” type of police-military operation was being hatched against activists.

On March 7, nine individuals whom rights groups said were mere activists were killed in simultaneous police operations in the provinces of Rizal, Laguna, and Cavite.

Police insisted the operations were legitimate as they were able to recover firearms from those killed and those arrested.

But the activists’ relatives said they were executed and the firearms were planted. —DELFIN T. MALLARI JR.