Two Female
Organizers Abducted in NE
BY BULATLAT
Posted 1:30 p.m., Sept. 5, 2006
Two female organizers
from Nueva Ecija province were illegally arrested by elements of the
Philippine National Police (PNP) before dusk yesterday, Sept. 4, said a
report from the provincial chapter of the human rights group Karapatan
(Alliance for the Advancement of Peoples’ Rights).
Karapatan-NE
spokesperson Beatriz Perido, a pastor of the United Church of Christ in
the Philippines (UCCP), said Aprilyn Perido, 26, organizer of the
provincial chapter of the urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap
(Kadamay) and Eloisa Tucay, 24, a student organizer of the youth group
Anakbayan, were nabbed by the police in front of the Wesley Divinity
Seminary School of the United Methodist Church (UMC) in Mabini St.,
Cabanatuan City.
Perido said that
Aprilyn, who is the UCCP pastor’s younger sister, sent her a text message
at 5:45 p.m. last night, saying: “2lungan nyo kmi, knukuha kmi ng mga
pulis! d2 kmi s mlpit s me Wesley divinity.” (Help us, the police are
taking us! We’re here near Wesley Divinity.) In a text message to
another person, Aprilyn said: “dinala po kmi d2 sa PHQ” (They
brought us here at the PHQ.)
In a text message to
Bulatlat, the older Perido said the two had been held
incommunicado. She said the police had denied arresting the two. Some
members of the local media, however, reported this morning, Sept 5, that
the two are being held at the PNP Provincial Special Operations Group (PSOG)
in Cabanatuan City.
The PSOG told the
media that they recovered from Perido and Tucay two pistols, four mobile
phones, eight SIM cards and a map of the Nueva Ecija Provincial Police
Office (NEPPO).
The illegal arrest of
the Perido and Tucay is the latest in the string of violations allegedly
perpetrated by soldiers under the command of controversial Maj. Gen.
Jovito Palparan, commander of the 7th Infantry Division (ID)
operating in the Central Luzon region.
In May, soldiers of
the 48th IB under Lt. Elmer Taglinawan threatened the Perido
sisters and their father, Virgilio Perido Sr., also a UCCP pastor in
Cambitala village, Pantabangan town in Nueva Ecija. Taglinawan told
Perido Sr. to “surrender” his two daughters. In an interview with
Bulatlat, Perido Sr. said that the soldiers had threatened that if he
doesn’t turn in his daughters, they would “take care of them.”
Karapatan-NE has
documented 11 people killed and seven missing in the province since
Palparan took over the 7th ID in Sept. 2005. Last month, Nueva
Ecija residents rushed in panic to get community tax certificates or
cedula for fear of being branded as New People’s Army (NPA) guerillas
if they did not have one. Bulatlat
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