Gov’t: 2 activists not abducted; ‘they left the movement’

‘SAFE AND SOUND’ Photos presented to the media on Friday by Capt. Carlito Buco Jr. of the Bataan Provincial Police Office show activists Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano (seated) in government custody. Their reported abduction on Sept. 2 is now being dismissed by security officials as a hoax. The one seated on the left is Tamano being comforted by her parents, Buco said.

The two activists who were earlier reported to have been abducted are now “safe and sound” under the government’s custody, a ranking security official said on Friday, claiming they had surrendered to authorities after leaving the “communist movement.”

Jonathan Malaya, assistant director general of the National Security Council (NSC), said Jonila Castro, 21, and Jhed Tamano, 22, were not kidnapped, as earlier reported by human rights groups who said they went missing on Sept. 2.

Castro and Tamano were identified earlier as environmental activists. Castro is an undergraduate psychology student at Bulacan State University in Malolos City, Bulacan province. Tamano graduated from that school last year, earning a degree in business economics.

But Malaya said the two were not environmentalists but “organizers of the Left.”

As to their reported kidnapping, “There was no abduction that happened. They left the movement on their own free will,” Malaya said at the press briefing held by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), where he chairs the strategic communications cluster.

‘Case closed’

Human rights groups had earlier reported that Castro and Tamano were forced into a gray sport utility vehicle by four armed men in front of the Water District Office of Orion town, Bulacan.

“But based on our investigation, there was no abduction that happened. We can say that this is already case closed,” Capt. Carlito Buco Jr., chief public information officer of the Bataan Provincial Police Office, said at the NTF-Elcac press briefing.

Malaya said: “They (the activists) are now in a safe house. They are safe and sound. Their parents have access to them.”

He added that Castro and Tamano had executed sworn statements “not in front of soldiers or police but with lawyers from the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) and Commission on Human Rights (CHR) representatives.”

Citing their affidavits, Buco said that as early as Sept. 1 Castro and Tamano had already made plans to leave their organizations but were afraid to do so.

The two were identified as members of the Student Alliance for the Advancement of Nationalism and Democracy, an activist group at the university. But human rights groups had also said they were members of Akap Ka Manila Bay, an environmental alliance based in Central Luzon that is opposing reclamation activities in Manila Bay.

Buco said they asked a certain “Ate” (Filipino for sister) if they could stay at her place.

Around 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 2, on the night when they were supposed to have been kidnapped, they were picked up by Ate and traveled more than 50 kilometers north to Guagua, Pampanga province.

Castro and Tamano then asked Ate to help them contact authorities and to hide them from their “comrades,” as they might be looking for them.

Buco said they also sold their cell phones “because they no longer had money to feed themselves.”

On Sept. 6, the NTF-Elcac and NSC denied that the police and military had anything to do with the activists’ disappearance.

On Sept. 12—10 days after they went missing—Castro and Tamano “surrendered” to the 70th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army based in Doña Remedios Trinidad, Bulacan.

Authorities at Friday’s press briefing did not show their affidavits but said the documents had been forwarded to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

‘Fooled by these claims’

Malaya said the NTF-Elcac was already working with the DOJ on the “necessary” criminal charges to be filed against the people behind the “hoaxes and scams.”

“This is not an abduction. This is an elaborate hoax and scam, where the victims are the public. We are all fooled by these claims perpetrated by the Leftist movement,” he added.

Among those who would be respondents of the criminal complaints they would file were the organizers of the Sept. 9 press conference in Quezon City, where a fact-finding mission of civil society groups pointed to “possible state involvement” in the abduction of Castro and Tamano.

The fact-finding mission was a joint undertaking of the groups Karapatan, Akap Ka, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, Promotion of Church People’s Response and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines.

According to Malaya, the two activists were supposed to attend the press conference, “but they requested not to come anymore because there are threats in their lives. In the Leftist movement, once you leave, they will find you and they may kill you.”

Enrique Manalastas, the father of Tamano, appeared via Zoom during the press conference and confirmed that their daughters were already with them.

He thanked the police for helping them find his daughter.

CHR not present

Meanwhile, CHR said it did not witness the submission of the sworn statements by the activists.

When reached by the Inquirer, CHR spokesperson Beda Epres said the commission “only saw the signing [of the affidavits] via video.”

But CHR personnel were in touch with the two activists, he added, and that PAO lawyers witnessed the submission of the affidavits.

Epres said officials of CHR-Central Luzon attended earlier this week an interagency forum in Bataan, where they heard about the activists being “rescued” by government agents on Sept. 12.

CHR officials were also told that “they (the activists) were not abducted but had surrendered,” he said.

“We will investigate the veracity of these claims and continue to coordinate with the activists and their families,” Epres said.

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