Erap 5:We are not coup plotters

The so-called "Erap 5," comprised of supporters of ousted President Joseph Estrada, asked the Department of Justice yesterday to dismiss the rebellion charges filed against them by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

In a consolidated counter-affidavit submitted to State Prosecutor Rome Senson during their preliminary investigation, Ruben Dionisio, Virgilio Eustaquio, Jim Lucio Cabauatan, Dennis Ibona and Police Officer 3 Jose Justo Curameng said they were illegally arrested at a house in Kamuning, Quezon City last May 22.

Eustaquio said armed CIDG and ISAFP agents in civilian clothes barged into Eustaquio’s house and ordered all of them to lie flat on the floor.

He said one of the government agents hit him on the nape with the handle of a long firearm.

On the other hand, Curameng said his face was stepped on by one of the armed men, while the others were divested of their personal belongings — including 12 cell phones, money amounting to P11,000 and valuable documents, drivers’ licenses, ATM cards and pawnshop receipts.

"The aforesaid armed intruders, without introducing themselves as to who they were, whether or not they belonged to any unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines or to any unit of the PNP, or without telling us the purpose for their forced invasion of my house, despite our repeated inquiries to them, which were met with blows and kicks on different part of our bodies delivered by these armed men," he said.

Eustaquio said that at gunpoint, all of them were ordered to step out of his house and go inside a white van, where they were blindfolded.

"After more or less 30 minutes of travel, we were ordered to alight from the vehicle and thereafter followed three days, more or less, of nightmare where the armed abductors constantly and inhumanly subjected the five of us to all kinds of physical and mental torture that tested the limits of our human endurance, (and) that almost killed one of us, Ruben Dionisio," he said.

Eustaquio said the inhuman and brutal infliction of serious physical injuries by the armed men has permanently scarred them physically, mentally and emotionally.

Last June 9, they separately filed criminal charges for frustrated murder, grave threats, arbitrary detention, violation of domicile, unlawful arrest, maltreatment of prisoners and incriminatory machination and robbery against the heads and members of the CIDG and ISAFP arresting teams who abducted them, he added.

Charged before the office of the Ombudsman were ISAFP chief Commodore Leonardo Calderon, Jr., CIDG director Chief Superintendent Jesus Versoza, ISAFP military intelligence and security group head Col. Henry Robinson, Police Officer 1 Noel de Ramos, Police Officer 3 Fred Pimentel, and 14 other unidentified PNP-ISAFP agents.

"We categorically denied that we are ranking members or even ordinary members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front, known to be communist groups, nor is our organization, the Union of the Masses for Democracy and Justice, a member of any communist organization nor are we involved in any rebellion against the government or in a plot to assassinate any Cabinet member," read the consolidated counter-affidavit.

Meanwhile, Dionisio denied engaging government troops in an armed encounter or committing any wanton acts of destruction against the government, contrary to the claims of Superintendent Alfredo Orbeta Jr. in his transmittal letter to Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez last May 22.

The CIDG and ISAFP, represented by lawyer Serme Ayuyao, were given by Senior State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco 24 hours within which to submit evidence to support the charges of rebellion against Eustaquio, Dionisio, Cabauatan, Ibona and Curameng.

Velasco also ordered the CIDG and ISAFP to submit within three days a manifestation as to whether they will still pursue the rebellion charges against Eustaquio, Dionisio, Cabauatan, Ibona and Curameng. — Jose Rodel Clapano