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DOJ issues contradicting info on convict’s whereabouts

Victim’s kin worried

BAGUIO CITY (Sept. 22) — The whereabouts of a convicted killer of human rights worker worries the victim’s relatives and human rights advocates in the region as two offices of the Bureau of Corrections in Muntinlupa City issued contradicting information. One of the Bureau’s officec claims that the convict is at the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm while the other office says he is held at the Maximum Security Compound of the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa.

Batan’s family and friends inquired on Agpawan’s whereabouts when earlier information spread that the latter was released based on an order from Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Convicted for murder, Agustin Agpawan was received at the NBP on July 27, 1995. Regional Trial Court Branch 59 of Baguio City earlier handed down the verdict for Agpawan as among those involved in the killing of Christopher Batan, former worker of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, on February 23, 1993 in Betwagan, Sadanga in Mountain Province.

Agpawan and four other members of the Citizen’s Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) involved in the murder belonged to the Betwagan communty.

One of the documents obtained by NORDIS reveals that in a letter dated May 3, 2005 Julio A. Arciaga, Assistant Director of the Prison and Security, inmate Agpawan “was transferred at the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm on 13 March 2003 for assignment thereat.”

Another letter from Manuel Z. De Guzman, Jr., the Chief of the Documents Section, claimed that: “Agpawan is presently confined at the Maximum Security Compound, New Bilibid prisons, Muntinlupa City.”

On Wednesday, NORDIS phoned the Bureau of Corrections to verify the information but the receptionist referred this writer to a phone number (02-850-5002) at the document section. Nobody picked up the phone, however.

Batan’s murder by five members of the CAFGU in Betwagan became a controversial case as perpetrators are all members of the para-military group and are from the same tribe of Betwagan. Agpawan was the first accused to be arrested, followed by Bonifacio Chumacog on 2003. In a notarized affidavit, Chumacog named the other three perpetrators, who are still at large. Branch 59 of the RTC of Baguio issued a warrant of arrest last July but the trio remains un-arrested.

The three perpetrators at-large are identified in the court arrest warrant as Mateo Fanao, Kengeb Fayno, and Panyong Rongan, all active CAFGU members under the Alpha Company, 77th IB based in Bontoc, Mountain Province headed by 1st Lt. Julio Sakupaso. Fanao has been allegedly elected as the Barangay Captain of Betwagan. # Arthur L. Allad-iw for NORDIS

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