From InterAksyon (Oct 11): Rights group slams 'abduction' of desaparecido's daughter, companion but Army says it nabbed rebels
A human rights group condemned what it called the illegal arrest in Cebu City of the daughter of a desaparecido and her companion but the Army claimed the two were communist rebel leaders. Karapatan said Jimmylisa Badayos, 36, a member of the Sons and Daughters of Desaparedicos, and Calixto Vistal, 38, were forcibly taken by personnel of the Cebu City police’ intelligence branch and the Military Intelligence Group as they stepped out of their workplace at EuroForest Products Industries, Inc., in Mandaue City on October 5. Although the two called for help from onlookers, the agents warned against intervening. The human rights group said Badayos was manhandled and a gun was planted inside her bag. Vistal was taken to Negros Oriental where a warrant for his arrest had been issued the same day he and Badayos were seized. He is now detained at the provincial jail.
Badayos, on the other hand, has been hospitalized for severe anemia. However, the Army's 3rd Infantry Division claimed the two were New People’s Army leaders. 3rd ID commander Major General Jose Mabanta said Vistal, who is also supposedly known by the aliases Cocoy, Fred and Isom, is head of the major NPA unit in southern Negros and used to lead a rebel unit in Bohol. Citing military records, Mabanta said Vistal was allegedly involved in several NPA operations in Bohol, Leyte and Negros, including the raid on two Bohol police camps in 1999. He was also reportedly involved in the encounter with Special Forces troops in 2000 in which 2nd Lieutenant Socrates Que and some of his men were killed. Badayos, on the other hand, is the wife of Vistal.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/45298/rights-group-slams-abduction-of-desaparecidos-daughter-companion-but-army-says-it-nabbed-rebels
KARAPATAN is a CPP-associated human rights front with chapters active nationwide. Looks like another trend in CPP propaganda efforts to discredit the military and gain public support for the release of captured/arrested insurgent leaders. Yesterday the CPP posted a propaganda piece entitled "AFP mistakenly arrests civilian, labels and persecutes him as NDFP leader" which asserted that the "Benjamin Mendoza" arrested by the authorities was a case of mistaken identity and that the detained individual was just an innocent civilian and not Mendoza. This article attempts to take a similar propaganda tack by claiming that the Calixto Vistal is not an NPA rebel but a member of the human rights group Desaparedicos.
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