Families of missing activists want AFP spokesman subpoenaed
A spokesman of the Armed Forces who claimed that communist rebels were behind the abduction of two Iloilo activists was a no-show at a hearing yesterday on a petition for habeas corpus filed by the families of the missing activists.
Capt. Lowen Gil Marquez, chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines' 32 Civil Relation Unit, failed to attend the hearing at the Regional Trial Court Branch 34 after the court failed to serve a subpoena for Marquez to testify in the hearing.
The court process server Edmund Porral said they failed to find Marquez at his office where he regularly holds press briefings in Camp Martin Delgado. Employees who refused to identify themselves also refused to receive a copy of the subpoena.
When reached by mobile phone by The News Today, Marquez said he was unaware of the subpoena.
"I'm always mobile so they can send it to the (national) headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo," said Marquez.
Lawyers of the families of abducted activists Ma. Luisa-Posa Dominado and Nilo Arado had asked the court to subpoena Marquez to shed light on the whereabouts of the two missing activists.
On April 12, unidentified armed men waylaid the victims' vehicle in Barangay Cabanbanan in Oton town before they were forced into a van . Their companion, human rights workers Jose Ely Garachico was seriously wounded after he was shot in the neck and left behind.
One of the petitioners' lawyers, Janne Baterna, said Marquez should tell the court what he knows about the incident.
Marquez had told reporters that he had received "intelligence reports" that the two missing activists were abducted by New People's Army rebels.
He said 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.
The families of the victims have rejected Marquez's statements and have blamed military agents for the abduction of their kin. Military officials have repeatedly denied any involvement in the incident.
Two witnesses had testified in the previous hearing on how the two victims were abducted.
John Sid Aranda, a resident of Barangay Cabanbanan, said he saw a van overtook and blocked the pickup truck of the victims a few meters from his family's house.
He said he heard a gunshot before he saw a man and woman being dragged from a vehicle by unidentified persons. The woman was resisting and screaming as she was forced into van, according to Aranda.
Barangay Capt. Eduardo Erecre said he also heard a gunshot before seeing a man walking toward pickup who ordered the passengers to get off from the vehicle. He said Aranda later brought a wounded Garachico to his house.
The two witnesses, however, said they could not identify the assailants.