Former political prisoner Andrea Rosal and Eduardo Serrano, who has been detained for 11 years on charges filed against him as alleged NPA commander 'Rogelio Villanueva.' (photo from Karapatan)
A human rights organization is urging the Quezon City regional trial court to free a political prisoner detained for 11 years after Army witnesses flubbed their testimony at a hearing Tuesday to establish his identity.
Eduardo Serrano was arrested in 2004 and identified by the
military as alleged Mindoro New People’s Army commander “Rogelio Villanueva.”
He was charged with multiple murder, frustrated murder,
robbery, multiple frustrated murder, and kidnapping over a rebel ambush in
March 2003 but it was only this year that the Court of Appeals ruled that his
real identity must be established first before the criminal case can be heard.
Tuesday’s hearing at QC RTC branch 98 was supposed to settle
the identity question, said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan,
but “the prosecution filed a motion for reconsideration to allow them to present
witnesses, and the court allowed it.”
However, Palabay said, the first prosecution witness, Major
Alex Dalingay Ampati, former commander of Bravo Company of the 68th Infantry
Battalion, admitted that Serano’s name was not in the affidavit he submitted in
court, only in an “order of battle” of 68 supposed rebels in his unit’s area of
operations that he was given by an intelligence unit.
Not only did Ampati not know either Villanueva or Serrano,
said Palabay, his admission of the order of battle’s existence “proved that
people merely suspected to be ‘enemies’ of the state are targets for
neutralization, whether through extrajudicial killing, disappearance, torture
and in this case, illegal arrest and detention."
Despite military denials, such orders of battle, many of
which include the names not only of rebels but of activists and members of
legal organizations, there is sufficient documentation, including that of
international rights experts, on the existence of such lists and on the fates
of many of those named in the documents.
On the other hand, Palabay said, the judge hearing the case
ordered the second witness, Sergeant Berlin Farinas, off the stand for falsely
claiming three times, on questioning, that his testimony about seeing
Villanueva, who he said was the same man accused in court, commanding the
rebels in 2003 was in his affidavit.
"What if I said it was never in your affidavit? Why did
you tell this court it was in your affidavit if it really wasn't?" Palabay
quoted the judge as saying.
The court will decide on Serrano’s identity on October
22.
In calling for Serrano’s release, Palabay likened his case
to that of Rolly Panesa, a security guard from Negros Occidental who was
arrested in Quezon City on October 12, severely
tortured and then presented by the military as alleged Southern
Luzon rebel leader “Benjamin Mendoza,” in a case that was
extensively followed by InterAksyon.com.
Although he was ordered
released almost a year later by the Court of Appeals, who ruled his case
one of “mistaken identity,” the military attempted to again file charges
against him and even handed out the P5.6-million bounty for “Mendoza
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/118905/group-urges-release-of-rebel-jailed-for-11-years-after-army-fails-to-identify-accused
The main CPP human rights front group once again comes to the aid of a member of the underground CPP/NDF/NPA insurgent organization. The problem that the Philippine military and local prosecutors have is correlating the clandestine nom de guerre of insurgent leaders with their above ground legal names. This inability to clearly and positively identify insurgent leaders has lead to the release of a number NPA cadre from Philippine detention centers. The fact that KARAPATAN, the main CPP HR front, has taken up the cause of Eduardo Serrano and provided him legal assistance would seem to reinforce the argument that Serrano is in fact an insurgent leader. However, proving it in a court of law is an entirely different matter.
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