ISAFP group head sacked for illegal arrest of ‘Erap 5’

A military intelligence group commander who was suspended earlier over the illegal arrest and alleged torture of the so-called "Erap 5" or supporters of former President Joseph Estrada was relieved from his post yesterday.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Generoso Senga ordered the relief of Lt. Col. Henry Robinson as commander of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP)- Military Intelligence Group (MIG-15). He now faces the possibility of court-martial.

Senga directed ISAFP chief Commodore Leonardo Calderon to place Robinson and seven of his men under pretrial military investigation.

Navy Commander Kenneth Paglinawan has been appointed to replace Robinson as new MIG-15 chief.

Robinson was earlier ordered confined to quarters following the fiasco over the arrest of five Estrada supporters last May 22.

The five were having a meeting at a house in Kamuning, Quezon City when MIG-15 agents barged in and arrested them, ostensibly on suspicion of plotting a coup.

Among those arrested were Virgilio Eustaquio, chairman of the Union of the Masses for Democracy and Justice (UMDJ), Police Officer 3 (PO3) Jose Curameng, Dennis Ibona, Jim Cabauatan and Ruben Dionisio.

The AFP top brass initially denied any role in the abduction of the Estrada supporters but later admitted they were under the custody of military intelligence agents.

The AFP justified the arrest saying the Kamuning raid was part of its monitoring operations of the movements of perceived enemies of the state.

The military tagged Dionisio as a hit man of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) with a mission to assassinate President Arroyo and her key Cabinet members.

Dionisio, however, denied the allegations and accused his military captors of torture to force him to admit to being an NPA guerrilla.