HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Soldiers Linked to Attempted Abduction in Pampanga
At about 10 pm on
February 26, four Armalite-wielding men wearing ski masks forcibly entered
the home of Eduardo Macapagal, 54, and tried to take him away at gunpoint.
The soldiers failed to take Macapagal with them after his family refused
to let go of him. “This is another clear proof that the military is behind
the killings and abductions,” said Joseph Canlas, Anakpawis (Toiling
Masses) party-list Central Luzon coordinator.
BY ABNER BOLOS
Gitnang Luzon News Service
Posted by Bulatlat
MASANTOL, PAMPANGA
(64 km. north of Manila) The vehicle that armed men in ski masks used in
an attempt to abduct a fishpond operator in Barangay (village) Bulaus,
Masantol, Pampanga may yet again point to soldiers as the culprits.
At about 10 pm on
February 26, four Armalite-wielding men wearing ski masks forcibly entered
the home of Eduardo Macapagal, 54, and tried to take him away at gunpoint.
The assailants
relented and left after issuing death threats when Macapagal’s family held
on to him and refused to let him go.
The vehicle the armed
men used was traced to be a patrol vehicle of the village council of
Barangay Consuelo, Macabebe, Pampanga which was borrowed by a certain Army
Sgt. Lumasac on that day and was returned the day
after.
In bed
In a statement to the
police, Macapagal said that he was already in bed when he heard persons
kicking the gate of his yard to force it open and later also the door of
the house.
He said when the
assailants were unable to forcibly open the door to his house, his son,
Eduardo Jr. who looked out a window to check the commotion was forced at
gunpoint to open the door.
He said when the
armed saw him, they grabbed him and forced him to kneel with their rifles
pointed at his head and both sides of his body. The assailants, who wore
fatigues and ski masks, then asked him to produce a gun which Macapagal
denied having.
He said the
assailants tried to take him with them but his family held on to him until
the armed men relented.
“Dyan ka lang
babalikan ka namin. Madugong pagbabalk,” (Stay put, we will be back
for you. Next time it will be bloody.) Macapagal quoted the armed men as
saying.
Patrol vehicle
The younger Macapagal,
18, a tricycle driver, told police he followed the armed men when they
left and saw that they boarded a yellow patrol vehicle with markings
identifying it as a vehicle of Barangay Consuelo, Macabebe, Pampanga.
Ernesto Perez, 54,
village head of Consuelo told police that the patrol vehicle owned by the
village council was borrowed by a certain Sgt. Lumasac at noon of February
26. He identified Lumasac as a soldier who is deployed in their village.
Perez said Lumasac
told him he needed to borrow the vehicle because he will go to Barangay
Palimpe in Masantol Pampanga. Perez said the vehicle was returned by
Lumasac the day after the failed abduction. Macabebe and Masantol are
adjoining towns.
The armed men came
back one week later. A police investigation report dated March 5 said
Macapagal sought police assistance in the early evening of March 4 because
two armed men in civilian clothes were seen casing their residence.
The armed men,
however, had left when the police arrived.
Military as
culprits
“This is another
clear proof that the military is behind the killings and abductions. We
have testimonial and physical evidence that soldiers deployed in Macabebe
forcibly entered the home of a resident in Masantol and tried to snatch
him,” Joseph Canlas, Anak Pawis party Central Luzon coordinator told GLNS.
He said the
government should investigate at once the army unit stationed in Barangay
Consuelo, Macabebe if it is at all serious in preventing more killings and
abductions.
“The government must
stop its Oplan Bantay Laya counter-insurgency program because civilians
continue to be victimized. The military should pull-out from the
communities to restore normalcy in the lives of people who have been
terrorized for so long,” Canlas said.
Civilian victims
Published reports and
documentation from Karapatan- Central Luzon show that are 127 civilian
victims of extra-judicial executions and 59 victims of enforced
disappearance in Central Luzon since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
took office in 2001 up to the present.
Sixty-six per cent of
the killings and 80 per cent of the abductions occurred from September
2005 to November 2006, the period when retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan
was commander of the Philippine Army’s 7th Infantry Infantry
Division that covers the seven provinces of Central Luzon.
In Pampanga province,
23 civilians have so far been killed and six were abducted and remained
missing, according to records of Karapatan-Central Luzon.
Canlas, who is also
chairperson of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL, Central
Luzon Peasant Alliance) is himself a victim of harassment and
surveillance.
He told GLNS he had
to take special precautions to evade military and government agents who
are constantly on his tail.
Arroyo vowed to crush
the 38-year old communist insurgency before her term ends in 2010. But she
has come under fire from local human rights groups and the international
community for her failure to investigate and put an end to the killings
which her critics say are being done by government security forces.
GLNS/posted by Bulatlat
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