AFP: Witnesses tag Benjamin Mendoza as NPA leader

MANILA, Philippines – The military on Tuesday disputed claims by the New People’s Army that it arrested a person falsely tagged as a rebel leader.

“Rolly Panisa is another alias of Benjamin Mendoza, secretary of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee. We have four witnesses against him,” AFP Southern Luzon Command spokesman Colonel Generoso Bolina told INQUIRER.net.

The witnesses include a direct witness to a crime in Mauban and three other rebels.

“The AFP is up to its old tricks again of illegally arresting civilians and parading them as leaders of the revolutionary movement. They abduct, torture and detain people, and identify them as leaders of the revolutionary movement. In this case, it turns out that they arrested a civilian security guard,” said Luis Jalandoni, chairperson of the NDFP Negotiating Panel in a statement posted on the Communist Party of the Philippines website.

The AFP announced on October 6 that they have arrested Benjamin Mendoza, a ranking rebel leader in Quezon but the CPP said they have arrested the wrong person and identified him as Rolly Panesa, a security guard assigned at the ACP Compound in Eastwood Quezon City.

The CPP said Mendoza is a consultant of the National Democratic Front Panel in peace negotiations with the government of the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Bolina assured that Manesa will go through legal proceedings.

“Legal proceedings on process for his inquest for illegal possessions of firearms in Quezon City court while his case was transferred from Quezon to Pasig through judge ruling for murder and kidnapping. He will be given a fair day in court,” he said.