Former political prisoner Aristedes Sarmiento greets wellwishers after he and other detainees known as the 'Tagaytay 5' were released in August 2008, two years after their arrest. In background is his fellow detainee, poet Axel Pinpin. Sarmiento was again arrested in Lucban, Quezon on July 16 on a non-bailable murder charge, the human rights group Karapatan said. (photo from http://www.arkibongbayan.org/2008-08Aug30-tagaytay5/pix/IMG_3038.JPG)
The human rights group Karapatan on Thursday raised the alarm over a spate of arrests and abductions of activists in the days leading to President Benigno Aquino III’s state of the nation address on Monday.
On July 16 Aristedes Sarmiento, one of the so-called “Tagaytay 5” arrested in August 2006 for allegedly being communist rebels and released two years later after rebellion charges against them were dismissed, was again arrested at the home of village chief Julianita Lagaya in Lucban, Quezon on a non-bailable murder charge.
Karapatan said Sarmiento was taken to Camp Vicente Lim in Calamba, Laguna where authorities at first denied his presence only to finally present him to his family around midnight when they demanded that a certification be issued that he was not there.
In Bataan, Karapatan chair Marie Enriquez said a farmer and a tricycle driver “abducted” on July 11 with two farmers by troops of the Army’s 703rd Infantry remain missing.
Enriquez said the missing farmer, Manuel Pacaira, was last seen in an army truck that drove out of the headquarters of the 24rth Infantry Battalion and headed for Pilar town. The tricycle driver was not identified.
Another farmer seized with the two missing, Josue Ortiz, is detained at the Balanga City jail after he was charged with illegal possession of firearms.
Enriquez noted that the 24th IB was involved in the abduction and disappearance of University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno, and the arrest, detention and torture of Raymond Manalo, a witness in the case filed against those accused of the students’ disappearance.
On June 28, Enriquez said Juan Pablo Versoza, a member of Alay Sining UP Diliman, and his wife Grace were illegally arrested in Marikina City through a warrant that listed only aliases.
She said the names of the couple were inserted in the warrant only after they were arrested.
Enriquez said the string of arrests and abductions “may be the start of the Armed Forces of the Philippines' escalation of its terror attacks against the people after it has admitted that Oplan Bayanihan is a failure.”
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/66656/rights-group-raises-alarm-over-arrests-abductions-ahead-of-sona
KARAPATAN is the main CPP human rights front organization. Thus, the group's defense of Sarmiento and its assertion that AFP is engaging in the persecution of political activists (i.e. members of CPP front organizations) should come as no surprise.
ReplyDelete