All that United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Pastor Berlin Guerrero, 46, could think of when he spent a horrifying night at the hands of police captors was that he could either rot in jail or join his “Creator.”

BY DENNIS ESPADA
Bulatlat
Human Rights Watch
Vol. VII, No. 17 June 3-9, 2007

BINAN, LAGUNA (36 kms. north of Manila) – All that United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Pastor Berlin Guerrero, 46, could think of when he spent a horrifying night at the hands of police captors was that he could either rot in jail or join his “Creator.”

Here in Baranggay (village) Casile in Biñan is where the ordeal began. According to witnesses, the pastor, together with his wife and children, were riding a tricycle on May 27 at around 5:30 p.m. when armed men blocked their path in front of Seven Star gas station and pointed guns at them. He asked if they had an arrest warrant, but he was struck on the nape and taken at gunpoint into a white Mitsubishi L300 van with a concealed plate number.

The abductors grabbed his wife Mylene’s bag that contains money and her cell phone as they sped away. Some of them were even seen video taping the incident.

With the help of Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights)- Southern Tagalog and colleagues from some Protestant denominations, the beleaguered family at once searched for him in various police camps and jails all night.

But the missing pastor suddenly surfaced the following day (May 28) when he called up his daughter Lora’s cell phone at 3:00 p.m. He told Mylene that he was turned over to the Philippine National Police (PNP)’s provincial headquarters at Camp Pantaleon Garcia in Imus, Cavite (23 kms. south of Manila) as of 11:00 a.m. that day

Activist pastor

As a moral and spiritual overseer, Pastor Guerrero knew it was wrong – being tortured and intimidated while blindfolded and handcuffed. It was only later that they told him he was charged with murder and inciting to sedition, supposed to have been committed in 1993 and 1988, respectively.

“The way I was ‘arrested,’ as the officers were trying to prove, was all wrong… These cases were all fabricated. I was asked several more questions that have nothing to do with the cases they filed against me and when they were not satisfied with my answer, I get a punch right away,” Karapatan-Southern Tagalog secretary-general Doris Cuario quoted him as saying.

She said that the pastor was hit and paddled with a big bottle of mineral water in different parts of his body, forcing him to admit to the things he was accused of.

Bishop Eliezer Pascua, UCCP general secretary, is certain that the forced abduction is related to Guerrero’s activist background, he being a former secretary-general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance)-Southern Tagalog.

The laptop computer that he uses for church and school work – which was taken during the abduction – was returned to him but was already messed up with “subversive files,” the pastor said. The family was not able to recover other “stolen” items.

Arrest or abduction

Philippine National Police (PNP)-Cavite Director Senior Supt. Fidel Posadas said that intelligence agents under him “arrested,” and not abducted, Guerrero. He claimed that the arrest was “legal” and was covered by two court warrants but did not give details on the cases.

On the contrary, Bayan Muna (People First) general counsel Neri Javier Colmenares clarified that an arrest warrant does not permit the police to abduct persons.

Reviewing eyewitnesses’ accounts, he thinks that the PNP operation “was illegal at almost every step.” The four abductors were not in uniform. They did not introduce themselves as officers of the law. They used guns, pointed them at him and one of the assailants hit the pastor in the nape. They then dragged him to one of the vans with covered plates.

“If this is not abduction, we do not know what it is. It cannot even pass as a legitimate arrest or serving of a warrant under the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure,” Colmenares explained. “Even if a warrant is produced later, Pastor Guerrero was deliberately hidden from his family and lawyers, effectively depriving him of his rights under the law.”

The Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure’s Rule 113, Section 7 states that: “When making an arrest by virtue of a warrant, the officer shall inform the person to be arrested of the cause of the arrest and the fact that a warrant has been issued for his arrest, except when he flees or forcibly resists before the officer has opportunity to so inform him, or when the giving of such information will imperil the arrest. The officer need not have the warrant in his possession at the time of the arrest but after the arrest, if the person arrested so requires, the warrant shall be shown to him as soon as practicable.”

The abductors and their commanding officer, he concluded, may be held liable in administrative, criminal and civil cases.(Bulatlat.com)

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