Militant group leader claims men tried to get him
Boy Bosque
A top official of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) in Panay narrowly escaped an alleged attempt to abduct or assassinate him, militant groups here claimed.
Aurelio Bosque, spokesperson of Bayan-Panay, said several unidentified men in plain clothes riding motorcycles followed him from their office in Jaro District Monday last week and pursued him even until he and two companions sought refuge at a Kababayan Center.
"Their intentions were more than just surveillance because they kept on following us even if they were aware that we already spotted them," Bosque said in a press conference on Tuesday.
He said he noticed two following him after he left their office in Barangay around 4 p.m. The men followed him in two motorcycles even after he rode a passenger jeepney going to the city proper. The two vehicles had no plate numbers, said Bosque.
Bosque said he was joined by two of his companions on the jeepney after the jeepney bumped another vehicle at the Jaro public plaza. He said he had wanted to go to a hospital because he was not feeling well after the accident.
While the accident was being settled by traffic enforcers, one of the men who was earlier following him also got on the jeepney. Bosque said he noticed that the man was wearing an earphone.
Bosque said they decided to proceed to a Kababayan Center in Barangay Montinola after they noticed the motorcycle men still following them.
But when they found no policeman at the center, they decided to take a taxi going to the Jaro police station. The motorcycle-riding men, however, again followed them.
Bosque said the men tried to overtake the taxi they were riding and were looking intently on the passengers. Anticipating an attack, they decided to go back to the Kababayan Center, sought the help of Barangay Captain Bienvenido Lago and called the police.
Bosque said policemen from the Jaro police station confronted the men but let them go after they showed papers for the motorcycle. They also denied that they were following Bosque and claimed that they were waiting for their companions.
Bosque's group went to the Jaro police station and reported the incident after the men left.
Militant groups accused military agents of being involved in the incident.
"It fits the pattern of the rising number of abduction and killings," said Hope Hervilla, regional coordinator of Bayan Muna.
But the Army's 3rdInfantry Division denied any involvement in the incident.
"It has been their practice to blame us and the AFP for incidents like this. But as we have repeatedly said, activists who shout and march in the streets are not our targets," said Lt. Col. Erwin de Asis, 3ID spokesperson, in a telephone interview. He said they are only going after armed elements of the Leftist movement.
Capt. Lowen Gil Marquez, chief of the AFP's 32nd Civil Relation Unit, dismissed the allegations as "propaganda."
He said it is part of the "grand plan" of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing New People's Army to "destroy the credibility of the AFP in order to create an environment of hatred against the government."
Jose Ely Garachico, public information officer of the human rights group Karapatan, said "the incident shows that the abductions and killings continued despite widespread international condemnation of killings of activists in the Philippines."
Garachico last year was shot and seriously wounded after heavily armed men abducted activists Nilo Arado and Ma. Luisa Posa-Dominado in Oton town. The two activists remain missing.
Lawyer Janne Baterna, an official of the Iloilo chapter of the National Union of People's Lawyers, said they will file a petition for a writ of amparro against the Armed Forces of the Philippines as a safeguard against possible attacks against Bosque.