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Abra PNP “invites” 2 HR dialogue participants

BANGUED, Abra (Sept. 30) — Right after the scheduled dialogue between the elements of the 41st Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) and the Abra townsfolk, the Philippine National Police (PNP) here accosted two of the participants from Malibcong town.

This came at the heels of the Abrenios’ call for the pullout of the 41st IBPA as a result of the aborted dialogue, where victims of human rights violations received various levels of support from those in the forum.

Accosted and detained for more than three hours at the Camp Juan Villamor are Felipe Balucas and Artemio Malaga, both farmers of Bangilo District in Malibcong.

PNP forces first took Balucas and interrogated him at the PNP camp. When a group of men approached Malaga in a separate instance, he said he had repeatedly refused to go with them to the headquarters for he had no compelling reason to heed what the police officers wanted.

At the camp, Malaga said he saw Balucas subjected to questioning. Some of the interrogators turned to him later and they made him identify persons in a set of photographs. His captors told him that Balucas was the one in another picture, which they said is a rebel. He attested that Balucas is not a rebel. The police said they were just clearing them of the charges, which Malaga said, the police officers did not elaborate.

The PNP knew that the duo came from a forum t the Divine Word College of Bangued. They even recounted to him what they were doing in the dialogue.

After they were asked to describe what happened inside the hall and why they were attending the dialogue, the police took some pictures and allowed them to go home some three hours after.

Meanwhile, the dialogue intended to resolve reported cases of human rights violations perpetrated against Abra residents turned into a people’s testimonial because no representative of the 41st IB appeared. Local government officials and representatives of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC), on the government side, came.

An overwhelming number of residents, mostly peasants from the different towns, namely Baay-Licuan, Lacub, Malibcong, Sallapadan and Tubo, represented the Abrenios who survived human rights violations.

Advocates and some supporters among government officials and non-government organizations and the religious were also present. # Ma. Luisa Soriano for NORDIS

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