“Political prisoner” released from jail

CEBU, Philippines - Just a day short of what would have been his fifth year in captivity, human rights activist Ramon Patriarca walked out of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center a free man after the court reportedly dismissed the charges against him for lack of basis.

Patriarca, 49, who hails from Metro Manila, said in an interview over radio station dyRC last night that Regional Trial Court Branch 25 Judge Jerry Dicdican found the case against him without basis and ordered his release last Jan. 10, 2014.

The FREEMAN has yet to obtain a copy of the release order but Patriarca said the release came after they filed a demurrer to evidence saying the case against him has no basis.

The Cebu Provincial Police Office and Central Command filed the case against him in 2009 after his alleged arrest, but Patriarca maintained that his arrest was more of an abduction.

He said he was abducted last Feb. 5, 2009 in barangay Casili, Mandaue City, Cebu, by unidentified men who covered his face, hogtied him and brought him to unknown place where he was beaten, threatened with a gun and tortured for three days.

He said he was later transferred to the Cebu Provincial Intelligence Branch where he was detained briefly and then transferred to a stockade in Central Command where he was held for two years while his case was heard in court. After two years in the military's stockade he was transferred to the Danao City Jail and was imprisoned for another three years before his release.

Patriarca said they have a pending civil case for torture and is demanding P1.4 million in damages against 20 officers and men from of Philippine National Police and Central Command.

Among those charged were then Cebu Provincial police director Chief Supt. Carmelo Valmoria and former CentCom commander Major Gen. Armando Cunanan. The case was filed last Apr. 9, 2009 and is still pending in RTC Branch 12 of Judge Estela Cinco.

"Gipapriso ko nila bisan walay basehanan," Patriarca said. He also said he was arrested without a warrant and when the warrant finally came it was the wrong name.

Patriarca said he felt happy upon hearing he would be released, but he also felt sad knowing that he is only one of the 450 political prisoners languishing in different jails in the country who have yet to be freed. He said the first thing he did when he learned the good news was to wash the clothes he would be wearing he will be released.

He left the CPDRC a free man around 4:30 p.m. yesterday.

Former Central Command spokesman Major Christopher Tampus, in a press release right after the arrest of Patriarca, alleged that the former detainee was the deputy secretary of the Komiteng Rehiyonal Sentral Bisayas and was the finance officer, head of taxation bureau of the New People's Army based in Negros Island.

Patriarca did not admit to the accusations against him but insisted that he is an advocate of human rights and will still go on championing his cause.  For now, he just wants to rejoin his family. —(FREEMAN)