Army officials deny holding missing activists
Col. Renato David (right), commander of the Army’s
301st Brigade, and Lt. Col David Tan, public
information officer of the 3rd Infantry Division,
during the hearing on the petition for habeas corpus
filed by the families of missing militants Nilo Arado
and Luisa Posa-Dominado.
photo by A. Chris Fernandez
Army officials told the Regional Trial Court (RTC) here that the two abducted leaders of militant organizations are not in their custody even as they admitted that they have not conducted an investigation on the incident.
Col. Renato David, commander of the Army's 301st Brigade, and Lt. Col David Tan, public information officer of the 3rd Infantry Division, also denied involvement of their units in the shooting of human rights worker Jose Ely Garachico and the abduction of Ma. Luisa Posa-Dominado and Nilo Arado.
"Our Brigade has nothing to do with it. I do not know anything about it. We only deal with the armed group, the New People's Army," David said in his testimony during a hearing on Thursday before the Iloilo RTC Branch 34.
The hearing was in relation to the petition for habeas corpus filed by the families of Dominado and Arado requesting the court to order the Army officials and to explain the cause of detention of the two activists and to release them to their families.
The hearing was attended by the families of the victims as well as their colleagues led by Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo.
Aside from David, the respondents include 3ID commander Maj. Gen. Juvenile Narcise and Col. Mariano Perez of the Military Intelligence Battalion.
David said none of the three battalions under his command were operating in Barangay Cabanbanan in Oton town on April 12, when unidentified armed men waylaid the vehicle of the victims and shot and wounded Garachico before forcibly taking Dominado and Arado.
Tan said this also holds true for the entire 3ID. The 301st Brigade is in-charge of internal security operations on Panay Island while the 3ID covers troops in Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol and Siquijor.
Tan said Narcise had ordered the units under his command to exert effort in locating the two missing victims and to allow the family, who are looking for their kin, access to military camps.
The families and colleagues of the victims had visited the headquarters of the 79th Infantry Battalion in the capital town of San Jose in Antique and the 12IB in Miag-ao town, Iloilo.
When cross-examined by one of the victims' lawyers, Hector Teodosio, Tan said he was unaware that the 3ID had conducted an investigation on the incident aside from receiving reports from lower units.
David said he has not ordered an investigation because it should be the Philippine National Police that should conduct it.
"It's a criminal case. The military has nothing to do with criminal and civil cases," said David.
The Army officials said in their testimonies that they do not have any information on the identities of the abductors and the victims' whereabouts.
They said they could not also confirm or deny the statement of an Army spokesperson that claimed that the missing activists were seen in the custody of NPA rebels.
Capt. Capt. Lowen Gil Marquez, head of the Civil Relations Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in the Visayas, said he has received intelligence reports that around 15 NPA rebels from Luzon arrived at the Dumangas port on March 6 before proceeding to the towns of Lambunao and Janiuay in Iloilo.
He further claimed that the rebels, under orders from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines, abducted and are holding Dominado and Arado in the boundary of the two towns.
When asked why the rebels were not apprehended despite the sightings, Marquez said the information only reached his office on March 22.
But Tan said they have no knowledge of Marquez's statements. "He may have other sources of information. We still have to verify it," said Tan.
The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, which Arado chaired, raised questions on the relief of Col. Mariano Perez of the Military Intelligence Battalion (MIB), one of the respondents of the petition.
Tan said Perez is no longer head of the MIB in Western Visayas. But he said he does not know when Perez was recalled to Manila and the basis of the transfer.
"Perez's sudden relief and inability of the Army officials to explain the reasons certainly raise questions because his unit is among those we suspect to have undertaken the attack and abduction," said Bayan-Panay spokesperson Aurelio Bosque.
But Tan said he has no knowledge of the transfer of Perez because they belong to different units of the AFP.