Gma’s ‘Strong Republic’ Takes Its Toll in Southern Negros 
Torture Victim Dies on Christmas Eve

The Christmas holiday is usually a jolly season especially for the festive Filipinos. But for the family and friends of Moreto Arcadenia of Negros, an island in central Philippines, December was a season of grief and fear. Arcadenia died on Christmas eve after a week of torture in the hands of the military.

By Karl G. Ombion / Alejandro Deoma 
Cobra-ans/ Bulatlat.com

Arcadenia (left) taken during his last days; Victim's family mourns during his funeral (right) 
Photos by Archie Rey Alipalo

It began when a battalion-size composite unit under the 61^st Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army conducted pursuit operations against the New People’s Army (NPA) after an encounter on Nov. 11 between NPAs and Scout Rangers and 61^st IB PA troopers who were in a test mission in the cluster of towns called CHICKS (Cauayan, Hinobaan, Ilog, Candoni, Kabankalan and Sipalay) area. The encounter left one soldier dead and two others wounded.

According to reports, the troopers, unable to find their targets, vented their ire on the civilians.  Several peasant families suffered harassment, grave threats, physical assault, warrantless arrest and severe torture.

Eight peasants – Moreto Arcadenia, 38, his father Moises, 70, and son Sammy, 17; relatives and fellow villagers Eddie Arcadenia, 21, Ely Arcadenia, 19, Demetrio Bitongga, 37, Marcelino Romano, 42, and Moreto Amadella, 45 – were detained for seven days in the military detachment in Sito Baras-Barasan and severely tortured and terrorized.

Tortured to death

Moreto Arcadenia, an ordinary farmer who could neither read nor write, was from Sitio Binus-ay, Brgy Manlocahoc, Sipalay City. His wife and other victims testified they saw Moreto hogtied, beaten simultaneously by five soldiers who used 2x2 pieces of wood and their M16 rifle butts. The soldiers allegedly beat him all day, hitting his legs, torso, arms and even his head.

On Nov. 17, the 61^st IB PA commanding officer was compelled to have Moreto and Moises taken to the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital. The military however registered the two under fake names, apparently for fear of being made accountable for their condition once the incident leaks out. The military also told the hospital the victims were NPAs to justify the obviously battered condition.

Two weeks after hospital admission under tight military watch, Moreto’s condition fast worsened. According to reports, he sustained hematoma all over his body and infection of blood and several internal body organs due to severe physical torture. His continued survival became totally dependent on medical apparatus.

On Dec. 13, Karapatan-Negros sought to have the victims transferred to a hospital of his family's choice, one that is better equipped and away from the military’s intimidating presence. 

The group endured harassment and grave threats from the military guarding the victim. The hospital also attempted to keep Moreto from being transferred and to deny the family access to his medical records. But in the end, the human rights group and Moreto’s family succeeded and transferred Moreto to the Siliman University Medical Center in Dumaguete City where Moreto was immediately confined at the intensive care unit. 

Before the transfer, the Karapatan-Negros team that attended to the case noted that Moreto was very ill and bloated. It reported that Moreto’s medical records in the first hospital never mentioned the hematoma all over his body caused by torture and the medicines given were insufficient.

The hospital transfer however was not enough to save the victim. Moreto died at 6 am on Dec. 24.

On Dec. 29, a nine-hour 175-kilometer protest caravan by militant organizations led by Karapatan-Negros and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) brought Arcadenia’s body from Bacolod to his village in Sitio Lawagon, Brgy. West, Candoni town, where he was laid to rest.

Culpable

cMoreto became the 170th fatality in the brutal campaign of repression of the Macapagal-Arroyo government’s "strong republic." In Negros, Moreto was the latest in the already long list of victims of the 303^rd Brigade PA headed by Brig. Gen. Alphonsus Crucero.

The Civil Liberties Movement (CLM), an organization of lawyers, law professors and students, journalists and other professionals in Negros, expressed all-out support to Moreto’s family and other victims of state terrorism. Lawyers Rolando Villamor and Ben Ramos, both CLM leaders, said the group would help in the filing of appropriate charges against the members of the military responsible.

Another CLM leader Achie Baribar, said that for the arbitrary detention, harassment, and torture of the hapless peasants and causing the death of Moreto Arcadenia, the commanding officer and soldiers of 61^st IB, including the top officers of the 303^rd Brigade, are liable for administrative and criminal charges.

He explained that the army officers and soldiers who took part, directly or indirectly, in the arbitrary detention, brutal torture, admission in the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital under assumed names, and various forms of cover-ups are all culpable in the commission of the crime.

Climate of fear

Meantime, the terror climate in Brgy Manlocahoc, Moreto’s village, and neighboring communities continues to build up, as the military continues to launch military operations. Several families have been dislocated and now fear going back. Those who have remained revealed their intensifying fear due to the military operations in their communities.

According to testimonies, the army continued to accuse civilians as NPA rebels, forced several of them to act as guides in their operations, used their huts as temporary military encampments, forced them to fetch water and firewood and cook for the soldiers, and limited their movements.

Karapatan-Negros also complained of disinformation and vilification campaigns by the military against Karapatan, other human rights groups and institutions and even lawyers, in order to divert the people’s attention away from their crimes and intensifying terror campaign in the southern towns of Negros island.

As of this writing, two soldiers of the 61^st IB have figured in separate cases of rape of peasant women, one in Guilhungan, Cauayan and the other in Buenavista, Himamaylan. Reports have also reached various media outlets in Bacolod City about the threats by members of the 61^st IB PA against media personnel who exposed the spate of human rights violations.

Fernandez

In a statement issued on New Year’s Day, Frank Fernandez, alleged head of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in Negros, blamed Gov. Maranon-Arnaiz and the top officials of the AFP and PNP in the region for the human rights violations in Negros.

Fernandez said the incidents in Manlocahoc, Sipalay cannot be separated from the cases in other parts of Negros and the country, manifesting the “terrorist and fascist character” of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippines National Police (PNP) under the US-Macapagal Arroyo regime.

Fernandez warned that the entire revolutionary movement in Negros would seek justice for the death of Moreto Arcadenia and other victims of alleged state fascism and terrorism. Bulatlat.com

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