Court rejects military bid to rearrest security guard

Torture marks? The human rights watchdog Karapatan obtained these photos of Rolito Panesa, which the group said were taken three days after his arrest by the military on Oct. 5, 2012.

MANILA, Philippines—The Court of Appeals has denied a motion by the military to rearrest a Quezon City security guard who was mistaken to be a ranking official of the communist rebel army and detained in 2012.

The court’s Fifth Division, in a decision dated Jan. 14, said there was no reason for the rearrest of Rolly Panesa since it had been proven that he was a victim of mistaken identity and that he was not the Danilo Benjamin Mendoza who the military claims leads the Southern Tagalog unit of the Communist Party of the Philippines’ armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA).

Despite the earlier finding of mistaken identity, the military still filed an urgent motion for reconsideration and for an order to rearrest Panesa. His captors had reportedly presented the security guard as “Mendoza” and already claimed a reward or bonus for the capture.

The motion was filed by Panesa’s arresting officers led by Insp. Bernardino Camus, Maj. Gen. Alan Luga, Maj. Gen. Eduardo del Rosario, Chief Supt. James Andres Melad and Senior Supt. Manuel Abu.

Dismissing the motion for lack of merit, the appeals court said: “As we have emphatically been stating, the detained person, Rolly Panesa, is not the same person as ‘Danilo Benjamin Mendoza.’ Rolly Panesa is his real name and it can never be his alias, as what was stated in the commitment order. Hence, there can be no justification for his continued detention,” the court ruled.

Panesa had sought the help of human rights groups, saying he was tortured during his 10-month detention. He also suspected he was being fraudulently presented as the NPA leader so the military and police officials could claim a reward for the capture.