Military claims 'captured' UP physicist is communist rebel

From InterAksyon (Oct 4): Military claims 'captured' UP physicist is communist rebel

The military claims a physicist and former university professor they "captured" following a clash with communist rebels in Davao Oriental October 1 has admitted to joining the New People’s Army last year.

Captain Alberto Caber, public affairs office chief of the Eastern Mindanao Command, said Kim Gargar "admitted he was a member of the NPA-Guerilla Front 25 of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee."

However, the Kalikasan-People's Network for the Environment said Gargar was "undertaking a research for the implementation of a disaster management project in Cateel town, which was severely devastated by typhoon 'Pablo,'" when he was taken by the military.

An honors graduate of the University of the Philippines National Institute of Physics, Gargar is a member of Agham (Advocates of Science and Technology for the Peoples) and also works with the Center for Environmental Concerns.

He teaches at UP and has taught at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Mapua Institute of Technology and the Mindanao Polytechnic State College, and has also worked for the Asian Development Bank.

He is also a PhD student at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in The Netherlands.

Caber claimed that Gargar "disclosed that he helped CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) founder (Jose Ma.) Sison in the production of several books aimed (at) exploiting the countryside" and "joined the NPA in Compostela Valley Province in 2012."

The military officer also noted that Gargar’s wife is “a writer of the leftist Bulatlat.com online news website.”

Caber said the soldiers involved in the clash in Barangay Aliwagwag found Gargar during clearing operations, several meters from the body of a slain rebel, Gerald Tagle, alias “Ryan,” supposedly vice commander of the NPA’s Guerrilla Front 25.

“He (Gargar) was left by his comrades. According to our soldiers who found him, he was laying on the ground semi-unconscious (sic) clutching his M16 rifle and a jungle pack on his back. Our soldiers cautiously approach(ed) him because of the rifle but he did not make any move,” Caber said.

Lieutenant Colonel Krishnamurti Mortela, commanding officer of the 67th Infantry Battalion, claimed Gargar had a jungle pack that yielded components for making landmines.

Mortela also claimed Gargar "was very cooperative in our interviews with him until he was visited by the group Karapatan," a human rights organization.

The battalion commander also attempted to link Gargar's science background to military claims that the rebels have been using improvised explosive devices "with contaminated shrapnel."

Gargar has been charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives, attempted murder and violating the election gun ban.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/72059/military-claims-captured-up-physicist-is-communist-rebel