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PNP wreaks havoc in Lepanto anew

19 workers arrested

MANKAYAN, Benguet (July 5) — Nineteen members of the Lepanto Employees Union (LEU) were arrested on July 2 at 2 a.m. by some 100 elements of the PNP and were detained at the Mankayan Municipal Jail for 38 hours. This was followed by a dispersal at the Nayak picket area 30 minutes after. The workers are their fifth week of strike versus the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMCo).

The arrested workers are Manuel Allibang, Rex Kacweis, Albert Pongchai-en, Tony Sabino, Rudy Sabino, Rod Ngeteg, Pablo Lumiwes, Benson Kesaed, Micheal Marnag, Julius Sagayo, Marcelino Guimpac, Johnson Mangalog, Marcelino Sacantiwan, Lambert Domoguen and Joseph Maragcay.

The workers were leaving the Mill Site picket area near the Carlos Palanca Jr. (CPJ) Center after a shift in the picketline when PNP elements from Camp Bado Dangwa led by Col. Ernesto Gaab and retired Col. Wilhelm Doromal, head of company security, shoved the workers inside three police cars. Thirty minutes after, four more LEU members were arrested at the Nayak picket area during the dispersal. One worker reportedly suffered from shoulder injury. Gaab, accompanied by Major Brent Madiaco, arrested workers Nelson Badua, Alfred Lugnas, Paterno Basingan and Melchor Kia-ew.

One of the workers arrested earlier, Julius Sagayo, said that the PNP nabbed them without showing them any warrant of arrest. Sagayo said that the policemen did not even explain to them why they were arrested.

“Idi magmagnaak a mapan agawid idiay Pukitan, adda agarup lima nga armado nga pulis nga bigla nga nangiguyodguyod ken nangidur-duron kanyak. Nakitak met lang nga adda met dagiti kakadwak a mangmangged nga tiniliw da ket nainayonak kadakuwada.” (When I was going home to Pukitan, around five armed policemen suddenly grabbed me and started dragging and pushing me. The policemen brought me to their service vehicle where I saw some of my companions who were also arrested) narrates Sagayo.

Sagayo added that while they were being arrested, some of the policemen kicked them.

According to Melchor Kia-ew, one of the four workers arrested in Nayak, they saw the armed policemen approach the picketline and gave way. However, the policemen began to handcuff him, he said.

“Idi ip-ipan dak dagiti pulis idiay lugan da, nakitak ken nanggeg ko nga inkasaan dagiti pulis sada pinaturungan ti paltog dagiti um-umay a kakadwak a da Basingan ken Lugnas tapno kuma sumublat nga agbantay iti piketlayn. Inguyod dagiti pulis isuda ket inserrek dakami idiay lugan da. Tiniliw da met diay maysa a kadua mi nga ni Badua idiay Sapid nga adda lang nga agin-inana idiay maysa nga store, (While I was being directed to the PNP vehicle, I saw and When the policemen were bringing me to there service vehicle, I saw some of the policemen cock their firearms and aim at Basingan and Lugnas. Badua, one of our companions, was arrested even if he was only resting in a sari-sari store in Brng. Sapid) added Kia-ew.

While detained, the workers were told that they would only be released if they paid the P2,000 bail, each.

Indignation rally

Family members of the detainees and other picketers were denied entry at the gate of the Municipal Hall two hours after the 19 workers were arrested. When they asked for the reason for the workers’ arrest, Sr. Inspector Edward Aquintey, Mankayan chief of police, said they were charged with harassment.

At around 7 a.m. Mankayan women under the Timpuyog dagiti Babbai iti Minas a Lepanto (TBML), the striking workers, and other residents staged a rally at the Municipal Hall grounds to condemn the “unlawful” arrest.

Formal charges were only filed against the workers late in the afternoon of July 2. Those arrested near the CPJ were charged with Grave Coercion, while the four people arrested in the Nayak picket area were charged of Direct Assault.

At around 4 p.m. same day, the PNP forcibly dragged four more workers from the Nayak picketline into a waiting police car. En route to the town hall, the car, however, was blocked by those at the indignation rally. Here, the PNP released the four picketers.

On July 3, four lawyers arrived at the municipal jail to negotiate the release of the 19 workers and had their bail lessened to P500, each. Lawyers Mary-ann Bayang, Thomas Bayugan, Randy Kinaud and Chit Yangot facilitated the release.

More dispersals

Immediately after the arrest of the four workers near the Nayak picket area on July 2, the PNP proceeded to disperse the picketline, confiscating the tolda (tent), some plastic chairs, including the iron gate the workers put up.

According to Phoebe Papat, wife of a mineworker, they were surprised when the policemen arrived and started pushing the men aside to force the gate open.

“They were armed with guns and truncheons, and when the picketers struggled against them to guard the iron gate from entry of newly hired employees of LCMCo, the men ended up mauled by the PNP”, she said.

The PNP escorted the entry of a company-hired bus, from Northern Trans, boarding 29 new employees.

On July 5, however, Tony Baggay of KMU-Cordillera reported that 10 new workers abandoned their work in the underground mines. This was followed by another four, he said.

On July 7, the PNP dispersed the Nayak picketline and escorted another busload of new recruits into the Nayak tunnel. Workers were not able to apprehend the newly-hired workers since the PNP positioned their firearms at them.

The Tubo picketline was again dispersed on July 9 at 2:30 a.m. by some 150 PNP elements, said KMU-Cordillera Spokesperson James Tulipa in a phone interview.

“We were surrounded by the PNP. They confiscated everything — tents, food, pots, even the sack of rice allotted for the picketline. We were forced to vacate and the picket area and moved towards Gate 2, but the PNP blocked us again there”, he said.

KMU negotiated with Madiaco until 9 a.m. of the same day to allow the workers and the women to go home instead, but the PNP major insisted otherwise, Tulipa said.

“We hope to reoccupy the Tubo picketline the soonest, since the owner of that patch of land already gave us the go signal to set up the picket even before”, he said. The Tubo picketline is across the Tubo gate, where the said land belongs to a certain Mr. Pitas. # Sarah Dekdeken-Sibayan and Aldwin Quitasol for NORDIS

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