Chadli Molintas Command
New People’s Army - Ilocos-Cordillera
February 21, 2006
BENGUET PNP ARRESTED LOCAL TOURISTS, NOT NPA
The Chadli Molintas Command (New People’s Army - Cordillera)
strongly denounces the 1604th Provincial Mobile Group and 3rd Company
of
the Regional Mobile Group of the Philippine National Police for their
craven and unwarranted arrest, torture and frame-up of eleven young
people visiting the Cordillera. The victims, including a 15-year old
girl, were illegally arrested, threatened with guns, hogtied, beaten
with wood slats, and even electrocuted by the police. They were
tortured
into admitting they were part of an NPA unit that successfully raided a
detachment of the 54th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army in
barangay Cabiten, Mankayan.
The victims, all in the prime of their youth, simply wanted to
experience the thrill of trekking through the beautiful countryside of
the Cordillera only to end up as victims of police brutality. They are
not members of the NPA, and even if they were, their right to due
process should have been respected. The inhuman treatment and near
death
they suffered at the hands of the PNP will traumatize them for life.
The police committed the atrocities to cover up for their
cowardly
conduct during the raid on the Cabiten detachment. Instead of riding
out
to reinforce the beleaguered detachment, the 1604th PMG and other PNP
units in the area hunkered down and hid in their camps and outposts.
They went to the Cabiten detachment, arrogantly strutting their
weapons,
only when they were sure that the raiding NPA unit had withdrawn.
This is not the first time that the various Benguet PNP units
displayed such deplorable conduct and recklessness. They have pointed
their guns and used violence on women and children when they harassed
the picket lines of striking workers of the Lepanto Consolidated Mining
Company. During their investigation of the 2003 gold heist in Lepanto,
they murdered Efren Agsayang, a deaf-mute whom they mistook for one of
the robbers. They arrested and tortured Joseph Coop, a lame man, on
suspicion that he was also one of the robbers. Coop was later proven
innocent when the real robbers were captured. Instead of meting out
punishment for their gross incompetence, bungling performance and
recklessness, PNP Chief Arturo Lomibao instead awarded the perpetrators
with commendations and promotions.
The 1604th PMG and other police units are fierce warriors when
attacking women, children, and the handicapped, but are like dogs with
tails tucked between their legs when confronted with the NPA.
The Benguet PNP is notorious for its reckless disregard and
monstrous violations of human rights of civilians and also of NPA Red
fighters. On August 17, 2005 PNP personnel under Senior Inspector
Crispin Ongican arrested, tortured, murdered, and brutalized the bodies
of NPA cadres Antonio “Ka Leyap” Licawen and Brandon “Ka Tub-on”
Ginaman
in Buguias, Benguet. Both victims were unarmed and were not resisting
arrest and yet they were not accorded their rights under
internationally
recognized humanitarian rules of war.
In 1985, Henry Dayag, currently assigned with the PNP in Buguias, led
the unit that killed, beheaded, and brutalized the corpses of three NPA
cadres, among them Fr. Nilo Valerio, in Bakun, Benguet. Their bodies
have never been found.
All these are an outrageous affront to basic human decency and
morality. It brings to mind the statement by an infamous American
general who avenged the ambush of his men by razing the town of
Balangiga in Samar to the ground: “Kill and burn, kill and burn. The
more you kill and burn the more you will please me.”
For the PNP and the military, there is honor in arresting and
torturing the innocent. There is valor in meting out violence on those
who are unable to defend themselves. There is courage in slinking away
from combat. This is how they “protect and serve.” Lomibao would know
all these. After all, he did his share in conjuring lies and torturing
the helpless during the Marcos dictatorship and after.
It is ironic that the people of the Cordillera and the rest of
the
country are ravaged and murdered by those sworn to protect and serve
them. It galls further that drug lords, gambling lords, criminal
syndicates and other nefarious entities are able to operate under the
auspices and protection of the PNP and military.
Those who daily rail against injustice in this society are
subject
to summary execution by the PNP and the military. This is the current
policy of the abominable Arroyo regime. Activist leaders like Pepe
Manegdeg and Albert Terredaño were murdered for advocating a change of
the prevailing corrupt system. Those in power would torture and murder
the innocent to preserve their corrupt rule. Leaders of the legal mass
movement are treated as targets of police and military harassment and
assassination.
Driven by a twisted sense of honor and glory, the PNP and
military
commit horrendous and barbaric acts of savagery. These so-called
guardians of society, these reckless barbarians, these vindictive
criminals in uniform, ought to be condemned and swiftly punished with
revolutionary justice.
Martin Montana
CMC Spokesperson
Check out the following links for further references on the Benguet
PNP’s despicable record: