“Karapatan demands the immediate release of 13 civilians including an accredited peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines as the arrest and detention is illegal and smacks of foul play and dirty tricks,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan.
“Karapatan demands the immediate release of 13 civilians including an accredited peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines as the arrest and detention is illegal and smacks of foul play and dirty tricks,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan.
Verified reports eventually reaching Karapatan showed combined elements of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) simultaneously raided three houses in Quezon City and Caloocan City on March 4, 2015 and illegally arrested 12 civilians and one who turned out to be an accreditedconsultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in the peace negotiations with the government.
Those arrested were Ruben Saluta, NDFP peace consultant who reported that he had in his actual physical possession, exhibited and invoked his JASIG Document of Identification No. ND978240 under the assumed name of Lirio Magtibay. Arrested with Ruben Saluta was his wife Presentacion Saluta whom he was visiting. Also arrested were four other civilians with diverse and unrelated activities—Alexander Raymund Birondo and his wife Winona Oñate-Birondo, Ruben Rupido and Joseph Cuevas. As is customary in the big city, Cuevas subleased the rooms in said house to save on costs and help defray the rent.
Those arrested in two other houses in Caloocan City were: Osias Abad, Emmanuel Bacarra, RosaliaReboltar-Bacarra, Roy Baldostamo, Manolito Estrella, Emmanuel Villamor, and Monette Alcantara, who had no common link except of being independent sublessors and sublessees of each other.
The raiding team purportedly had a search warrant issued by the Quezon City RTC Branch 78 for illegal guns . “When they did not find any of those fictitious items listed on the warrant, the members of the raiding team ‘planted’ guns and explosives and labeled them ‘evidence’. All three houses were searched and the raiding teams hauled their belongings,” said Palabay. The police-AFP operatives also ‘invited’, a euphemism for arrest, the 13 residents of the three houses. To justify the baseless and bungled operation, the police later filed false charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives against the 13 arrested, including Saluta.
“It was the testimony, a ridiculous tallstory, of a certain Roger Reyes Rodriguez that supposedly linked together the three separate households,” said Palabay.
Rodriguez claimed he met Saluta in Antique province through his uncle. Saluta supposedly recruited him as gun for hire in Manila. “Rodriquez went to Manila, contacted Saluta who gave him a gun he didn’t like. Saluta brought him to the house where the Bacarras were staying and offered him another gun, which Rodriguez again refused. Saluta then brought him to the third house where Osias Abad resided and offered another gun that Rodriguez finally liked,” related Palabay, citing Rodriguez’s increduloussworn affidavit, which became the dubious basis of the search warrants improperly issued for the Quezon City and Caloocan houses.
At 1:25 a.m. of March 5, Ruben Saluta et al were brought to the CIDG office in Camp Crame, Quezon City. At around 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. of the same day, Saluta et al were brought to the Prosecution Office at the Quezon City Hall of Justice for inquest without the presence of a legal counsel of their choice despite continuously invoking their right therefore.
Those arrested in Caloocan City were presented for inquest before the City Prosecution Office of Caloocan City but was able to immediately contact the Karapatan National Office, which in turn alerted the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) that agreed to representthem during inquest.
“All 13 are now at a cramped holding area at the Major Crimes Investigation Unit (MCIU) and the Anti-Organized Crime Unit of the CIDG in Camp Crame. The nine men are currently in a 3 X 4 meter cell, along with four other prisoners. The four women are locked up in a similarly-sized cell, which on some days they share with other prisoners [as well]. Many of those arrested are in their 60’s and suffering from various serious ailments,” Palabay added.
Karapatan said these incidents show the continuing violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), with the arrest of another NDFP peace consultant, and the rampant practice of illegal arrest and detention, incriminatory machination, and illegal search and seizure by state security forces in the country.
As of December 2014, the group documented 700 victims of illegal arrest and detention under the BS Aquino administration, among them 15 NDFP consultants.
The raid was jointly conducted by the following units of the AFP and PNP: Major Crimes Investigation Unit (MCIU) of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG), PNP Special Action Force (PNP-SAF), PNP Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG), PNP Anti Trans-National Crime Unit (PNP-ATCU), Intelligence Service Group Philippine Army (ISG-PA) and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. ###