Rolly Mira Panesa, the security guard arrested and allegedly tortured by the military and police who tagged him a ranking officer of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), has been freed from the Metro Manila District Jail in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, days after the Court of Appeals called him a case of mistaken identity.
The CA ordered his release from jail after hearing a petition by his lawyers, who had insisted from the very start that the security guard was definitely not a communist rebel, more so a ranking officer for whose arrest the government paid P5.6 million in reward.
Until his release late Friday night, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), through its public affairs officer, Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala, insisted that Panesa, who is in his 40s, is also the 61-year-old communist leader “Danilo Benjamin Mendoza”.
Just last August 12, 2013, AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista had awarded to a military tipster the P5.6 million reward for the arrest of Panesa.
Christina Palabay, secretary general of the human rights group Karapatan, said Panesa walked out of Camp Bagong Diwa at 9:45 pm Friday night and "is now with his family.”
Palabay slammed the reward system of as an “organized racket” for some military and police officers. She said Panesa wants to file charges against those responsible for his arrest, torture and detention.
“Rolly, his family, Karapatan and his lawyers from the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) are now meeting on options to file counter-charges,” Palabay said.
Karapatan said the AFP should be liable for the serious violations of the rights of Panesa, who was jailed 10 months and 24 days, and suffered torture.
Panesa, his common-law wife and two other companions were arrested by military and police elements in Quezon City on October 5, 2012, and taken to Camp Vicente Lim in Laguna where he said he was tortured.
A petition for the writ of habeas corpus was filed at the Supreme Court October 28, 2012 with the help of Karapatan, which has been providing paralegal assistance for Panesa and his family.
Palabay “the CA ruling affirmed our position that Panesa’s illegal arrest is a case of mistaken identity; a proof that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) practices illegal arrest, filing of trumped-up charges, torture and illegal detention against activists and ordinary individuals; and that the AFP twisted this case for a P5.6-million racket, packaged as reward, at the expense of Panesa’s rights.”
Earlier, the military kept mum on what happens to the P5.6 million reward it gave out, for the arrest of a man tagged by the CA as a case of mistaken identity.
The rewards system, which rights groups warn has become a major "racket," is based on joint memorandum #2012-14 of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Department of National Defense (DND) dated November 2012. It bears a list of 235 so-called wanted communists, allocating P466.88 million for monetary rewards. The DILG and the DND said the list included a certain “Benjamin Mendoza.”
“The said list, which is kept confidential by the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), is nothing but a hit list of persons who may suffer the same fate as Panesa, or they may end up killed or disappeared. The reward is also a moneymaking scheme by the AFP because the funds are arbitrarily handed over to so-called military assets,” Palabay said.
Palabay asserted: “[Gen.] Bautista, then Southern Luzon commander and now AFP Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Alan Luga and all military and police officials involved in the illegal arrest, torture and detention of Panesa should be charged with violations of the Anti-Torture Law and Republic Act 7438 or the Rights of the Arrested or Detained Persons,” said Palabay.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/69775/cpp-leader-freed---as-questions-persist-on-his-torture-injuries-and-p5-6-m-reward-for-tipster
There is something fishy with this Panesa vs. Mendoza identity thing. CPP front groups like KARAPATAN and the NUPL usually don't provide legal defense/advice to those under arrest or being detained unless they are CPP/NDF/NPA cadre.
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