Pimentel: Punish those who arrested 5 Erap supporters

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. challenged the country’s top security officials to punish operatives and officials involved in the arrest of five supporters of deposed President Joseph Estrada earlier this week.

They were released last Friday by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez for insufficient evidence following questions about the legality of their arrest as well as allegations of torture by the arresting officers.

Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz and Armed Forces chief Gen. Generoso Senga should take appropriate action against the operatives and officials of the Intelligence Service of the AFP (ISAFP) and to make sure there is no cover-up, Pimentel said.

He emphasized that the role of the military and the police is to protect the people. "They cannot allow these offenses to go unpunished, otherwise the reputation of the AFP will be tarnished."

Senga has ordered the head of the ISAFP to investigate. The Senate is also set to conduct its own inquiry on Tuesday.

Virgilio Eustaquio, a leader of pro-Estrada group Union of Masses for Democracy and Justice, Ruben Dionisio, Dennis Ibona, Jim Cabauatan and Police Officer 3 Jose Justo Curameng were picked up by the ISAFP while they were meeting at Eustaquio’s house in Quezon City last Monday.

Pimentel reiterated his call for the military to leave law enforcement to the police, particularly in highly urbanized areas such as Metro Manila, to avoid similar future incidents.

"The police are trained in the policies and rules of law enforcement. But the soldiers have an entirely different training and orientation from the police," he said.

Sen. Manuel Roxas II also expressed concern over the incident, saying that the people are entitled to forthright answers on how the abduction came about and who are the people behind it.

"Intolerance of political, religious and ideological views especially when practiced by people vested with military or police authority imperils our existence as a genuine constitutional democracy," Roxas said. "The call of the times is for public vigilance and strict adherence to the rule of law."

The five Estrada loyalists were allegedly involved in a communist rebel plot to assassinate four officials of President Arroyo’s cabinet.

Gonzalez said he ordered their release to allow them to prepare for their defense against rebellion charges filed against them.

They plan to file complaints accusing police officers and soldiers of torturing them into confessing their supposed involvement in the assassination plot allegedly planned by the communist New People’s Army (NPA).

Estrada’s camp condemned the arrest, noting the arresting officers did not present arrest warrants nor give any explanation to relatives of the five, initially raising fears that they were abducted.

Officials said the five were arrested while in the act of planning the assassination of Gonzalez, national security adviser Norberto Gonzales, Presidential Chief of Staff Michael Defensor and Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane.

Authorities detained the five on Monday and announced the arrest Wednesday. One of the suspects, Dionisio, allegedly an NPA rebel hit man, told reporters later Wednesday that he had been beaten and electrocuted by arresting police and soldiers.

"I was in handcuffs while they punched my sides," he said, showing reporters bruises and bites — allegedly by fire ants — on his back and stomach.

Dionisio claimed he was kept blindfolded and tortured for several hours during questioning by military intelligence agents.

Dionisio claimed that he was coerced into falsely admitting his supposed involvement with the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), both considered terrorist organizations by the United States and the European Union.

Police Senior Superintendent Asher Dolina denied that Dionisio had been tortured, saying he had resisted arrest and that agents scuffled with him. — With Pia Lee-Brago