Village leaders confirm arrested NPA ‘leader’ is a carpenter

ANTIMINING activist Romeo Rivera Jr., a carpenter, is held at the Digos City police station following his arrest on the suspicion that he is actually Felix Armodia, a top New People’s Army leader in Southern Mindanao. ORLANDO DINOY/INQUIRER MINDANAO

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Barangay (village) leaders in a remote village in Koronadal City in South Cotabato have confirmed that the mining activist the military claimed to be the ranking New People’s Army leader Felix Armodia was actually an ordinary carpenter named Romeo Rivera Jr., they usually sought for help when they needed to do some carpentry job in their village, a Bayan Muna partylist lawmaker said.

Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Zarate, who accompanied a fact-finding mission to Sitio Lasang in the village of San Roque in Koronadal on Thursday, said the villagers said they personally knew Rivera Jr., the ordinary carpenter village officials usually sought whenever they needed some carpentry works in their village.

Rivera was taken from his house in  San Roque last May 2 by police and military troops who served him the warrant of arrests of Felix Armodia, the NPA leader the military claimed to be operating in the Davao del Sur area.

“All the residents and barangay officials we interviewed attested to the fact that Rivera Jr. has been a long time resident in the place; that he is an ordinary panday the barangay officials usually hired for their repair and other construction works,” Zarate said. “They also said he is engaged in the production of organic fertilizer like vermiculture and that he is also active in the anti-mining campaign, being a convenor of Panalipdan Tampakan,” Zarate told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

“They cannot believe he is an NPA or that he is “Felix Armodia” the alleged NPA leader whose warrants of arrests are being used by the AFP to justify his detention,” he added.

But Zarate said he thought Rivera’s arrest was not “just a simple case of mistaken identity,” but a deliberate attempt to harass and vilify him.

“They charged him as ‘Felix Armodia’ so that he will be neutralized in his anti-mining activities,” said Zarate, who vowed to call for an investigation of Rivera’s case in Congress. “This is a deliberate attempt to send a chilling message to other anti-mining activists and human rights defenders.”

Zarate said Bayan Muna would call for an investigation of Rivera’s case and other similar cases in Congress.

He said a case similar to that of Rivera happened in Manila in 2013 when the Armed Forces of the Philippines arrested a security guard named Rolly Panesa and presented him as a ranking NPA official.

The Court of Appeals ordered the release of Panesa after his relatives filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The court said Panesa was not what the military claimed he was. But despite the court order, the AFP did not return the reward they gave to the military asset who helped in his arrest.

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