Gov't scored for inaction on abducted militants' cases
04/20/2007 | 10:08 AM
Email this | Email the Editor | Print | Digg this | Add to del.icio.us
Lamenting the worsening situation of “enforced disappearances," militants scored the government for its continued inaction on the abduction of two militant leaders who were ambushed in Oton, Iloilo a week ago.

Militant umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) branded the abduction of Nilo Arado and Luisa Dominado as enforced disappearances.

“The cases of enforced disappearances or abductions of activists have reached alarming levels. While there are more than 800 cases of extrajudicial killings under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, there are also around 200 cases of involuntary disappearances," Bayan said in a statement on its website (www.bayan.ph).

Dominado is a leader of the militant group SELDA while Arado chairs the Bayan chapter in Panay Island.

Unidentified men ambushed the two, along with Karapatan-Panay leader Liboy Garachico, in Oton town in Iloilo last April 12. Garachico was shot but is now in stable condition.

But the men who staged the ambush forced Arado and Dominado to board two vehicles.

Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said that one week after the abduction, there is no relevant action from the Philippine National Police.

“The government should exert more effort to find the disappeared, similar to the effort it exerted in finding the missing Peace Corps volunteer (Julia Campbell)," he said.

Yet, he said that instead of undertaking a serious probe, the PNP has muddled the investigation by insisting that the missing activists are members of the New People’s Army.

He said this is a disturbing sign the PNP will make alleged affiliation with the NPA “a convenient motive for any harm that may befall them."

Reyes said that the PNP in Panay even expects the families of the victims to be the ones producing the evidence and witnesses.

“The PNP seems to be disinterested in performing its job and wants other to do the work for them," he said.

Bayan believes that the rise in the number of enforced disappearances of activists is very much a part of the government policy to “neutralize" leftist groups.

“Unlike the policy of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances do not leave any bodies, making the victims’ kin and the public think that the disappeared may still be alive. Enforced disappearances therefore are as cruel as extrajudicial killings," Reyes said.

“We have every reason to believe that these abductions are being done by state security forces under a national policy of neutralizing and eliminating activist groups. The Filipino people know this. The whole world knows this," he added.

Last Wednesday, relatives of the missing activists, claiming that only the military is capable of such an act, asked the court to compel the military to produce the two leaders.

Luis Arches Posa, brother of Luisa, and Rosemarie Arado, wife of Nilo, through Human Rights lawyer Janne Baterna, filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus against three military officers before Judge Jose Azarraga of Regional Trial Court Branch 37, demanding the presentation of Arado and Posa.

Named respondents in the said petition are Maj. Gen. Juveniele Narcise, Commanding General of 3rd Infantry Division, Col. Renato David, Brigade Commander of 301st Army Brigade based in Camp Hernandez, Dingle, Iloilo and Col. Mariano Perez Jr., chief of the Military Intelligence Battalion based in Camp Delgado, Iloilo City. - GMANews.TV