Military denies torturing Chavit ‘aide’

BAGUIO CITY — Government troopers, who nabbed and held for five days a supposed consultant of former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson, have denied torturing him while in detention.

"There was no physical abuse whatsoever," said Lt. Col. Juanito Dalmas, commanding officer of the Army’s 17th Infantry Battalion, in reaction to allegations that Singson’s "aide," Joselito Baleva, was tortured.

Baleva’s wife, Angelica Gonzales, earlier said her husband had bruises all over his body when she and human rights groups located him at Camp Elpidio Quirino in Bantay, Ilocos Sur.

Baleva plans to file charges against his alleged "tormentors" with the Commission on Human Rights and the Joint Monitoring Committee on the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Laws of the government and the National Democratic Front.

The 17th IB’s Alpha Company, led by Lt. Noel Pataray, chanced upon Baleva in a remote area in Salcedo, Ilocos Sur last July 18 while they were pursuing New People’s Army (NPA) rebels retreating from their camp which the soldiers overran three days earlier.

The soldiers claimed they seized an M-16 rifle and a backpack containing subversive documents from Baleva, giving them enough reason to believe that he was one of the retreating rebels.

Baleva was turned over to the provincial police command at Camp Elpidio Quirino only on July 22. He was released on bail the following day after being charged with rebellion and illegal possession of a firearm.

Dalmas, however, said he personally saw to it that Baleva’s rights were respected while he was under detention.

"I (made ensure that) he would not be touched," Dalmas told The STAR in Tagalog in a phone interview. "In fact, (Bale—va) even expressed his gratefulness for my men’s high regard for discipline when we first met at the headquarters."

Dalmas claimed that Baleva confessed to him that he joined the NPA because it was his dream since childhood.

Baleva, a Community Development graduate of the University of the Philippines, claimed that he worked as Singson’s consultant for economic and social projects in Ilocos Sur, and prior to that, with various non-government groups in the Cordilleras.

Dalmas added that two rebels, who had voluntarily surrendered to them, positively identified Baleva as Ka Ramel, allegedly an armed regular and a medical officer under the Sonang Gerilya 2 of the NPA’s Ilocos Sur South Front.

The military has accused Baleva of being one of the killers of Sta. Lucia Mayor Teodoro Hernaez whom NPA hit men gunned down last April 18 for alleged "blood debts" to the people.