Central Luzon police, NOLCOM blamed for Bayan Muna crackdown

TARLAC CITY — Militants and human rights activists are holding the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (NOLCOM) and the Central Luzon regional police office responsible for the alleged string of disappearances and "spurious" arrests of leaders and members of the left-leaning party-list group, Bayan Muna.

Roman Polintan, regional chair for Central Luzon of the radical Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan-CL), said that behind the purported crackdown on Bayan Muna in the region were NOLCOM chief, Major General Rodolfo Garcia; police regional director, Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Berroya; and, elements of the Philippine Army’s 7th Infantry Division, 70th and 71st Infantry Brigades.

Emil Paragas, Tarlac provincial vice chair of the human rights group, Karapatan, said they have so far documented the disappearance and "illegal arrest" of at least six activists affiliated with the militant party-list group in Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and Aurora. He added that they have also monitored a village-wide "militarization" in a remote town of Tarlac, where a Bayan Muna organizer and his wife were tagged by police and military authorities as communist guerrillas. Paragas said that still missing in Nueva Ecija are Juan Orcino Jr., 43, married and a resident of the Teachers’ Village in the Science City of Muñoz; and Honorio Ayroso, 34, married, of Barangay San Isidro, Cabanatuan City.

Orcino, a Bayan Muna organizer, and Ayroso, a former student activist, were allegedly seized by elements of the 71st IB in Barangay Sto. Niño in San Jose City last Feb. 9. Also still missing in Aurora are small entrepreneur Rowena Bayani, 32, and tricycle driver Edwin Villaruz, 36. Both members of Bayan Muna, Paragas said that the two were nabbed by soldiers belonging to the 70th IB last Feb. 4 in Barangay Cabituculan West in Maria Aurora town. He added that Karapatan-Tarlac was able to trace the whereabouts of militant farmers Rustico Pamintuan, 29, and Luz Patinga, 51, to the detention center of the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (NAKTAF) in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

The two, who live in Barangay O’Donnell, were reportedly implicated in a sketchy kidnapping case, and were forcibly taken by NAKTAF agents backed by the Tarlac police last Feb. 2.

Last Feb. 25, Paragas said that the entire Barangay Maasin in Pura, Tarlac was "militarized" when combined police and military elements were reportedly looking for Lupito Mauricio, a member of the militant Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Tarlac (AMT) and a Bayan Muna organizer. Maurico and his wife, Gina, were tagged by authorities as guerrillas of the communist-led New People’s Army (NPA).