From InterAksyon (Aug 13): 'ORGANIZED RACKET'? | Karapatan says AFP handing out rewards for 'fake rebel leaders'
The human rights group Karapatan on Tuesday called P19.25 million in rewards handed out by the Armed Forces of the Philippines to informers part of an "organized racket", claiming that one of the payoffs was for the capture of a man falsely accused of being a communist rebel leader.
Karapatan has long insisted that the man the military claims is "Communist Party of the Philippines official Benjamin Mendoza" is really Rolly Panesa, a security guard who was seized in Cubao, Quezon City, and has been in jail for 10 months now.
Among the rewards handed out by AFP chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista on Monday was the P5.6-million bounty for the arrest of Mendoza.
"It's simply a rip-off, an organized racket," Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said in a statement.
Palabay said Panesa is not the first bogus rebel leader presented by the AFP. She cited the arrest of Oligario Sebas , a resident of Manjuyod, Negros Oriental who the military claimed was alleged Negros rebel leader “Felimon Mendrez.”
"The AFP said Sebas had a P5.2 million on his head and was on the list of the Department of National Defense-Department of Interior and Local Government Joint Orders on Reward or Joint Order 14.2012," Palabay said. Sebas was eventually released through a writ of habeas corpus.
Earlier, Karapatan called the joint order "no different from the secret hit list of Gloria Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay Laya which resulted to thousands of cases of human rights violations ranging from illegal arrest and detention, enforced disappearances and political killings."
The group said the joint order was “used to legitimize the enforced disappearance, illegal arrest and detention of Estelita T. Tacalan, a 60-year old peasant organizer and rural health worker in Misamis Oriental” who was reported missing on April 27 and was found on May 7 at the Dipolog City Jail, where she remains detained.
“The DND-DILG’s secret hit list should be scrapped as it has become the basis to arrest, detain, and torture people on false charges; or worse, (have them) disappeared or killed,” Palabay said.
“The AFP should also be held accountable for squandering the people’s money to violate people’s rights,” she added.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/68516/organized-racket--karapatan-says-afp-handing-out-rewards-for-fake-rebel-leaders
The human rights group Karapatan on Tuesday called P19.25 million in rewards handed out by the Armed Forces of the Philippines to informers part of an "organized racket", claiming that one of the payoffs was for the capture of a man falsely accused of being a communist rebel leader.
Karapatan has long insisted that the man the military claims is "Communist Party of the Philippines official Benjamin Mendoza" is really Rolly Panesa, a security guard who was seized in Cubao, Quezon City, and has been in jail for 10 months now.
Among the rewards handed out by AFP chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista on Monday was the P5.6-million bounty for the arrest of Mendoza.
"It's simply a rip-off, an organized racket," Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said in a statement.
Palabay said Panesa is not the first bogus rebel leader presented by the AFP. She cited the arrest of Oligario Sebas , a resident of Manjuyod, Negros Oriental who the military claimed was alleged Negros rebel leader “Felimon Mendrez.”
"The AFP said Sebas had a P5.2 million on his head and was on the list of the Department of National Defense-Department of Interior and Local Government Joint Orders on Reward or Joint Order 14.2012," Palabay said. Sebas was eventually released through a writ of habeas corpus.
Earlier, Karapatan called the joint order "no different from the secret hit list of Gloria Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay Laya which resulted to thousands of cases of human rights violations ranging from illegal arrest and detention, enforced disappearances and political killings."
The group said the joint order was “used to legitimize the enforced disappearance, illegal arrest and detention of Estelita T. Tacalan, a 60-year old peasant organizer and rural health worker in Misamis Oriental” who was reported missing on April 27 and was found on May 7 at the Dipolog City Jail, where she remains detained.
“The DND-DILG’s secret hit list should be scrapped as it has become the basis to arrest, detain, and torture people on false charges; or worse, (have them) disappeared or killed,” Palabay said.
“The AFP should also be held accountable for squandering the people’s money to violate people’s rights,” she added.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/68516/organized-racket--karapatan-says-afp-handing-out-rewards-for-fake-rebel-leaders