HUMAN
RIGHTS WATCH
Survivors’ account
Abducted in Pampanga
“Arrest, abduction or even
torture is not enough to describe what they did to us. They just went on
hurting us like we were not human beings,” said one of the seven transport
activists abducted in Angeles City, Pampanga province on July 3. Although
six of the abducted had been surfaced and released on bail, one remains
missing.
BY
ABNER BOLOS
Gitnang Luzon News Service
Posted by Bulatlat
|
Fernando Poblacion’s face was pressed hard
on the pavement by a soldier’s boot planted at the back of his head and
the barrel of an M-16 rifle thrust at his neck. His three companions,
William Aguilar, Jay Francis Aquino, and Jose Bernardo also lay face-down
as more than 20 soldiers kicked and hit them with rifle butts and pistols
to force them to lie still before they were hauled to a waiting Delica
van.
The scene did not take place in a rural
village in the dead of the night. It was 10 am, July 3, and they were in a
crowded parking area at the back of the Robinson’s shopping mall in front
of a hospital in the busy commercial district of Balibago, Angeles City.
Poblacion, 28, along with three other
provincial leaders of the Pinag-isang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytors
Nationwide (PISTON-Central Luzon) were on their way to a meeting to
discuss activities in connection with the recent round of oil price
increases when the tricycle they were riding was surrounded by armed men
in civilian clothes.
|
RECALLING THE ORDEAL: Fernando
Poblacion, Jr. narrates his and other Piston-Central Luzon leaders’
torture in military custody during a press conference in Quezon City,
July 6 |
“Suddenly, all I can see were
gun barrels pointed at us. There were about eight soldiers around the
tricycle and more behind them. We were pulled from the tricycle one by one
while being kicked and hit with their gun butts and barrels,” Poblacion
told GLNS in Filipino.
Inside the van, Emerito Lipio, Jose Ramos,
and Archie De Jesus were already handcuffed, blindfolded and lying prone
when Poblacion and his three companions were pushed inside, stripped of
their clothes, blindfolded, and their hands bound with masking tape,
Poblacion recounted.
The Karapatan (Alliance for the
Advancement of Human Rights) in Central Luzon, identified Lipio, 41, as a
member of the PISTON National Council and provincial coordinator in
Bulacan. Ramos, 42, is a Bayan Muna party project coordinator for Central
Luzon. De Jesus, 25, is the owner of the house in Barangay Malabanias,
Angeles City where Lipio and Ramos were taken earlier by soldiers. The
rest of the seven are PISTON provincial coordinators from Pampanga and
Tarlac.
No warrant
No arrest warrant was presented by the
soldiers who were identified in a police report as elements of the Army’s
56th and 69th Infantry Battalion. Police
Supt. Policarpio C. Segubre, head of the PNP in Angeles City led the
arresting team, the police report said.
The soldiers brought the victims to a
safe house where they were tortured
for about 14 hours before they were transferred at dawn of July 4 to the
174th Philippine National Police headquarters in Sto. Domingo,
Angeles City, Poblacion said.
On July 4, De Jesus and
William Aguilar were released without charges. On July 5, Poblacion,
Ramos, Bernardo and Aquino were released after posting bail totalling
P500,000 ($9,551.10, based on an exchange rate of P52.35 per US dollar).
The four were charged with illegal possession of explosives.
“Arrest, abduction or even
torture is not enough to describe what they did to us. They just went on
hurting us like we were not human beings,” Aquino, 25, said of the ordeal.
Missing
Lipio remains missing.
He was tagged by authorities as an intelligence officer of the Bulacan
provincial committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines, a charge
which his wife denies.
“That is not true. My husband
is known in our province as a leader of [the] Anak Pawis [party] who, as a
transport leader was active in attending rallies and opposing oil price
hikes. He also led in opposing the demolition of homes and business
establishments because of the [Northrail] railroad project,” Lipio’s wife,
Mercy, told GLNS.
Poblacion said that he knew
that Lipio was still with them when they were brought to the safe house
where they were interrogated and tortured.
“Although I cannot see him
because I was blindfolded, I can hear his screams as he was tortured. They
were asking him about the whereabouts of people the interrogators say are
CPP leaders in Bulacan. He was being forced to confess that he is a member
of the Bulacan CPP provincial committee,” Poblacion said.
But he was not sure if Lipio
was still with them when they were transferred to the 174th police headquarters because they were brought to separate
jail cells.
Stripped and blindfolded
Inside the van, the abductors
began the interrogation and torture while they were still on the road.
Ramos, 42, an engineer, said
he was stripped of his shirt which was wrapped around his head.
“I was on top of Lipio and
William [Aguilar] was thrown on top of me. William had a bloody wound on
his head and his blood flowed to my head and body,” Ramos recalled.
He said the van travelled for
more than one hour in the outskirts of Angeles city. As a driver himself
and a native of the city who is familiar with the city’s road network, he
knew that that they did not travel far and did not leave Pampanga
province.
“They did not want us to see
their faces. They threatened to shoot us if we peeked or tried to remove
our blindfolds. Every question was accompanied by a slap in the head or a
punch. They also used their guns to hit us,” Ramos said.
But as they heard each other
answer the questions defiantly in the cramped space inside the vehicle,
their morale rose, Ramos said. Each time he survived a blow, Ramos
recalled, he knew he could mentally and physically endure the torture even
if it could lead to his death.
Safehouse
But the real ordeal began
when they reached the safehouse.
From noon to about 2 or 3 am
of the following day, more than 12 interrogators took turns abusing each
of them, Ramos said.
“We were not given any food
or clothes and our blindfolds were not removed in the safe house. Our
first meal was at the police headquarters when we were transferred,” he
said.
During brief lull moments,
they would manage to talk to each other in low tones.
“Mamamatay na tayo siguro
dito, pero handa na ako. Hindi nila tayo napasuko at gawin ang gusto
nilang gawin natin,” Ramos quoted a fellow victim, saying what he
heard echoed exactly what’s on his mind. (We might die here but I am
prepared. They failed to make us surrender and do their bidding.)
They endured all sorts of
abuse. They were slapped and hit in all parts of the body causing welts
and contusions. They were made to stand on one leg for hours. They walked
or crawled facing the wall when going to the urinal or when transferring
to another room, Ramos recounts.
But they managed to do small
acts of defiance. Ramos said that when he was asked to stand on one leg
and when he could not do so, he simply told his interrogator: “Sige,
iputok mo,” (Go ahead and shoot). He was not shot.
Ramos is suffering
from heart ailment, diabetes and arthritis.
Transfer and release
They were shirtless,
blindfolded and weak from pain and hunger when they were transferred to
the 174th PNP headquarters in Barangay Sto. Domingo, Angeles
City at about 3 am the following day.
When they realized that they
were brought to a police camp in the city, their hopes rose.
“Mabubuhay na tayo dito,”
Ramos recalled telling another victim. (We will be kept alive.)
They were placed in separate
jail cells and the beatings stopped.
Ramos said he was able to
take a bath and was given a fresh change of clothes and even a breakfast
of bread and coffee by the inmates.
The others were not so
fortunate. They remained blindfolded and shirtless until shortly before
noon when they were taken outside to the courthouse for the inquest.
Relatives and supporters
gathered outside the gate of the police headquarters when information got
out that the victims were brought there.
On the night of July 4,
police officials accosted the group of about 100 people who decided to
hold an all-night vigil to demand the release of the victims. They were
told to leave the area or be dispersed. But a woman who owns the house
opposite the police camp offered her home where the protesters spent the
night.
Before 5 pm of the next day,
July 5, six of the abducted were free.
Showcase?
Before they were surfaced,
relatives and friends of the victims were fearful that the seven will
share the fate of scores of others in the region who disappeared after
abduction.
But Ramos said one of their
captors hinted that they will not be killed because the arrest was
conducted in coordination with police.
“Kung papatayin kayo,
hindi na ito iko-coordinate sa pulis,” (If you will be killed, this
would not have been coordinated with the police.) Ramos quoted an unnamed
abductor as saying.
“Our release may be a
showcase to improve the image of GMA who hails from Pampanga,” Ramos told
GLNS.
“It may also boost the
police’s claim for a bigger allocation of the P1 billion budget for GMA’s
total war against the insurgency,” Ramos said.
Civilians as victims
Joseph Canlas, AnakPawis
(Toiling Masses) coordinator for Central Luzon says the abduction is but
another example of the “brutality and total disregard of human rights” of
the Arroyo regime and Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.
“The survivors’ accounts are another grim
example of how the “total war” of the US-Arroyo regime against the
insurgency, as implemented by Palparan, actually victimizes civilians and
not members of the New People’s Army,” Canlas said in a statement.
Canlas said the victims did not carry
grenades as the military and police claimed, but still the charges were
filed and accepted by the court.
“It is a habit of the police and military
to plant evidence to justify warrantless arrests especially against
civilians and to delay the release of the victims,” Canlas said.
Poblacion narrated his ordeal
at a press conference
with Sen. Jamby Madrigal on July 6 at the Imperial Hotel in Quezon City.
The senator has called for a United Nation’s investigation on the
worsening human rights situation in the country and a stop to the
government’s “all-out” war on insurgency.
Madrigal, who was criticized
by Malacanang for holding talks with National Democratic Front leaders in
The Netherlands and for issuing a joint communiqué with the NDF,
challenged President Arroyo “to resume the peace talks now and stop the
killings.” Gitnang Luson News Service / Bulatlat
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