TWO intelligence officers of the Philippine Army were arrested after they allegedly tailing a van boarded by some lawyers and members of progressive groups from Bacolod City to the wake of slain human rights lawyer Benjamin Ramos Jr. in Sipalay City, Negros Occidental on Saturday, November 17.
Chief Inspector Clifford Batadhay, deputy chief of Sipalay City Police Station, identified the two members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as Rodolfo Alemen Jr., 40, of Bacolod City, and Makoy Villahermosa, 26, of Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental.
Batadhay said the two military officers were arrested after they were sighted by members of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), who said they were tailing the convoy led by NUPL president Edre Olalia, secretary-general Ephraim Cortez, and other lawyer-members from Panay.
They were alarmed about it, he added.
Lawyer Teopisto Melliza called for police assistance after they saw one of the soldiers were carrying a firearm from a distance when they arrived at the city’s gymnasium in Barangay 2 past 6 p.m.
Police brought the military officers at the station for questioning.
While they were at the police station, authorities recovered from Alemen a .45 caliber pistol, which is a licensed firearm, Batadhay said.
Based on the mission order from Cebu, which he presented to the police, it allows him to carry a firearm anywhere, he added.
Batadhay said the lawyer initially filed unjust vexation charges against the two army officers but the group decided to elevate the case to attempted murder after learning that its detention is only 12 hours.
For his part, Colonel Benedict Arevalo, commanding officer of the 303rd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army based in Murcia town, confirmed the identities of the two military officers.
Arevalo said the AFP members were detailed for security and monitoring to avoid violent incident, citing the murder of Ramos in Kabankalan City on November 6.
“It is a standard operating procedure to provide security coverage to a high-profile personality to ensure the safety of everyone,” he added.
The army commander said the two arrested army officers were not riding-in-tandem suspects. “Why did they follow them for three hours if they were riding-in-tandem suspects?”
“It so happened that they were burnout. They even went to the police station to avoid possible commotion,” he added.
He stressed, “they were even eating when they were arrested, so there is no prevalence of threat. How could that be an attempted murder case?”
Arevalo said the two AFP members are now facing grave threat charges after the fiscal downgraded the case from attempted murder charges.
He added there is no problem if they have firearms because they were allowed to bring it for as long as they have mission orders. “There was no crime committed there,” he added.
He said it was not anomalous as “they were just trying to protect them.”
He added the legal team of the Philippine Army will go to Sipalay City Monday morning, November 19 to assist them on the legal procedures.
Arevalo also said the military officers did not identify themselves at first because they were required to do covert operations as intelligence officers.
Earlier, progressive groups in Negros Occidental claimed that the death squad allegedly created by the AFP was behind the killing of Ramos, who was laid to rest Sunday, November 18, in Sipalay City, after he was tagged by the state forces as legal counsel of communist rebels and “land grabbing” farmers.