Army intel officer faces raps for Mindoro abuses

The Department of Justice (DOJ) will file charges of kidnapping and slight physical injuries against the intelligence chief of the Army’s 204th Infantry Brigade for alleged human rights abuses in Gloria, Oriental Mindoro last April.

Justice Undersecretary Jose Calida said witnesses have identified M/Sgt. Donald Cagias as the alleged perpetrator of the abuses.

Cagias has gone AWOL (absent without official leave), according to Calida, who heads a DOJ task force investigating the killings of two human rights activists — Eden Marcellana and Eduardo Gumanoy — in Oriental Mindoro last April 22.

Calida said Cagias could also be involved in the deaths of Marcellana and Gumanoy.

He earlier said that the murders and the incident in Gloria town were related. The two human rights activists were part of a fact-finding mission that looked into the alleged human rights violations in Gloria.

After Cagias was identified as a definite suspect in the Gloria abduction and mauling, Calida said they went to his supposed safehouse during their visit to Oriental Mindoro last May 8-9, but missed him.

"Witnesses said he arrived but he saw our task force so he immediately left. Right now, he is a fugitive. We gave him until last Monday to surrender to us but he refused," Calida told reporters.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is now preparing the charges against Cagias. Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, Armed Forces vice chief of staff, told a congressional hearing that he has gone AWOL.

Garcia has ordered Col. Juanito Gomez, deputy commander of the 204th IB, to act on the DOJ task force’s request for the names of soldiers who responded to the April 20 incident in Gloria town.

Calida said Gomez might be charged with obstruction of justice if he fails to yield Cagias and provide the task force with the names of 204th IB personnel who went to Barangay Tambong in Gloria town.

Earlier, Lt. Col. Reynaldo Cabigao, acting adjutant of the 204th IB, said in a letter to Mario Menor, chief of the NBI office in Calapan City, that no names had surfaced.

"The persons involved/witnesses to the incident are in a better position to identify these alleged military personnel who were involved in the incident," Cabigao said in his letter.

Cabigao added that no unit of the 204th IB had reported that one of their vehicles was used to tow a passenger jeepney in Gloria town last April 20.

Calida quoted witnesses as saying that at least four uniformed men carrying Armalites and M-16 rifles arrived in the municipality on board a military jeepney.

The jeepney bore no license plate but had "SF Tabak Kaa—gapay" on its body, meaning it was being used by the Army’s special forces on "friendly operations," Calida said.

Calida said at least six armed men in civilian clothes went to Barangay Tambong on the night of April 20 and went after suspected members and sympathizers of the New People’s Army.