Why was the arrest done by military men and not the police? The official documents clearly indicate this: the NISF elements were merely “assisted” by two members of the provincial police. According to Police S/Supt. Fidel Posadas, Reverend Guerrero was first brought to the NISF-NCR office “for documentation and to evaluate the tactical significance to national security (of) the items found in his possession.” That Rev. Guerrero was “turned over” to the police the following day clearly indicates it was not police authorities that had “served” the warrant for his arrest.

Why did the police officers not immediately investigate or at least report the irregular manner by which the “arrest” was effected and that he was evidently tortured? Normally, turnover includes a document saying subject is in “good condition,” i.e. with a medical certification by competent authorities. Under the circumstances, if they were not part of the cover-up, should not the police have immediately filed a complaint against the NISF?

Why have the authorities, including the Police Directorate, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Malacañang, not come out even with the name of the unit of the NISF and the identities of the operatives, much more taken steps necessary to determine who gave the orders to abduct and torture Reverend Guerrero?

More interestingly, who gave the orders to “surface” him and turn him over to the police? By all indications, the abductors had not the least intention to do so, until “someone upstairs” gave the order, perhaps anxious not to have another Jonas Burgos case in their hands while Mrs. Arroyo was Down Under trying to sell an economically robust, peaceful and just Philippine society.

Why did Rev. Guerrero turn up alive, unlike the close to 200 others who have involuntarily disappeared under the Arroyo regime? Human rights advocates attribute this to the unrelenting local and international pressure on the government; for while Malacañang and military/police top brass persist in attributing these human rights violations to a supposed internal communist purge, no one is taking them seriously.

The bottom line is still this: any government worth its salt would put a stop to such killings. Mrs. Arroyo, chief executive and commander-in-chief, is commonly and correctly perceived as tolerating, if not in fact abetting, such heinous crimes against her regime’s critics, dissenters and the common folk who just happen to be in the way.

For anyone seeking proof that the extrajudicial killings, frustrated assassinations, enforced disappearances, tortures and massacres of progressives, activists and even bystanders are state policy, this case of Pastor Guerrero is the smoking gun. Business World / Posted by
(Bulatlat.com)

*Published in Business World
8-9 June 2007

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