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Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Bayan Muna accuses cops of kidnapping coordinator
By Garry Cabotaje
AN OFFICER of a party-list group was allegedly kidnapped by two police intelligence agents and taken to a safe house in Lapu-Lapu City near the Mactan air base Friday night, a Bayan Muna official yesterday said.
Arman Perez, Bayan Muna Visayas coordinator, said his colleague, whom he refused to identify, was still in a state of shock since he was released last Saturday around 6:30 p.m.
Sun.Star was told that the alleged kidnap victim is a male Central Visayas regional coordinator of Bayan Muna.
But a Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 official denied they had a hand in the kidnapping.
He instead believed that it is just a disinformation campaign to put the PNP in a bad light.
“We are still asking him what really transpired during the kidnapping,” said Perez, adding the incident was not an isolated case.
Perez mentioned the killing of four youth activists in Compostela Valley last week. They were reportedly taken by military intelligence agents.
He said the PNP and the military, which tagged Bayan Muna as a legal front of the Communist Party of the Philippines, is implementing Oplan Bantay Laya designed to pressure the party-list organization members.
The move is to prevent Bayan Muna from topping again among party-list groups in next year’s elections, Perez said.
Yesterday, members of the Anak ng Bayan Youth Party and League of Filipino Students staged a protest rally at the gates of the Central Command (Centcom) in Lahug, Cebu City at 12:30 p.m.
Waiting for ride
They condemned the “widespread fascist actions of the military on the youth,” as they pointed to the military “as the sole and merciless perpetrator of the killings.”
Perez said the kidnap victim, who came from a meeting in Inayawan, Cebu City, was waiting for a ride on Osmeña Blvd. when two burly men with side arms snatched him past 7 p.m. Friday.
He said the two unidentified men forcibly took the victim to a gray L300 van with no plate numbers and sped off towards Lapu-Lapu City.
Perez said the two kidnappers interrogated the victim in a safe house and introduced themselves as members of R2, known as the PNP Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division (RIID) 7.
The men asked about the whereabouts of renegade priest Rustico Tan and New People’s Army (NPA) spokesman Sylvino “Ka Bino” Clamucha, he said.
Centcom had identified Tan, alias Tikoy, as the successor of Roy Erecre, former Central Visayas Regional Party Committee of the CPP-NPA.
Perez said the two men also persuaded the kidnap victim to join the PNP and act as their informant.
But Supt. Melchor Fajardo, RIID 7 chief, denied that his men were responsible for the kidnapping.
Fajardo said he had not received such a report or ordered an operation against the members of the party-list group.
“That’s misleading. We always respect human rights,” he added.
(September 30, 2003 issue)
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