Anakpawis member’s home raided

Activists blame military for attack
By Tonette Orejas
Central Luzon Desk
Last updated 05:39pm (Mla time) 04/22/2007

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO--Eight armed men, whom militant activists suspected to be soldiers, raided the house of the Anakpawis coordinator in Central Luzon in Arayat, Pampanga, on Saturday night.

When the group failed to find Joseph Canlas, also chair of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL), in the house, they beat up his nephew and held his nephew's wife and one-year-old daughter at gunpoint.

Canlas, 46, said he eluded the raid, which he considered to be either an attempt to kill or abduct him, when he decided not to sleep in his house in Barangay Balite that night.

Talking to the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone on Sunday, Canlas said he chose to spend the night elsewhere because the Army's 703rd Infantry Brigade and its 69th Infantry Battalion had set up camps in Arayat and nearby Mexico town.

He said he had been taking precautions since men believed to be military agents started tailing him in 2005.

Canlas said five of the eight men broke the door of his house between 10:30 and 11 p.m. Saturday. Two men served as lookouts while the eighth, apparently the group's driver, waited inside a white van that did not have a plate number, witnesses said.

Seven men carried rifles and wore street clothes and ski masks.

Canlas said the armed men his nephew, Augusto Nicdao, on the chest, head, face and mouth, using their rifles. One grabbed his hair as they grilled him on Canlas’ whereabouts.

Nicdao said the suspects held his wife and daughter at gunpoint and threatened to kill them if he did not tell where Canlas was. They also searched the house for guns and anti-government documents, leaving the place in disarray.

The armed men left in haste when some of the neighbors went out of their houses to check on the commotion, it was learned.

The armed men, Canlas said, took Nicdao's mobile phone.

Canlas said that was the first ever raid on his house and the first direct threat to his life.

"Had I been there, I would probably be dead by now," he said in a statement. He suspected the military to be behind the "despicable" incident.

Col. Rommel Gomez, chief of the 703rd IB, however, said he was not aware of the raid.

"I don't have any information on that incident, if ever there was," he said.

"My question is, 'Why that ready finger pointed at us all the time?'" Gomez said, referring to what he called propensity of militant groups to blame the military for incidents of human rights violations.

Lt. Col. Edison Caga, commander of the 69th IB, did not reply when sought for comment.

Willy Marbella, deputy secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, of which the AMGL is a member, condemned the attack.

In a joint statement with Canlas, Marbella said the "death squads are really intent on crippling our organization in the vain hope that by terrorizing our leaders and members we would abandon our struggle for genuine land reform and a more just society."

Marbella said the raid was an attempt to stop Anakpawis from campaigning in the May 14 elections.


Copyright 2007 Central Luzon Desk. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.