Angeles City chairman of Anakpawis abducted

ANGELES CITY — The chairman of the Anakpawis party-list group here remained missing yesterday after armed men seized him from his home Saturday night.

With the fate of Benedicto Magdaong, 53, still unknown, militant leaders dared Chief Superintendent Ismael Rafanan, newly designated Central Luzon police director, to solve what they bewailed as the growing number of "crimes" against activists in the region.

Roman Polintan, Bayan-Central Luzon chairman, said the killings and disappearances of militant leaders and even civilians associated with militant groups in the region are peace and order concerns which the police should address.

"We are challenging Rafanan to do his job by solving the abduction of Magdaong as well as the other killings and abductions which have been increasing since last year," Polintan said.

Rafanan took over his post only last week, replacing Chief Superintendent Alejandro Lapinid. 

Details were not immediately available on Magdaong’s abduction, but Bayan noted the presence of a detachment of the Army’s 69th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Ninoy Aquino, where Magdaong resides.

Militant groups have tagged the men of Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, commander of the 7th Infantry Division, in the killings and abductions of activists. Palparan has repeatedly denied this.

Bayan claimed that 51 leaders and supporters of militant groups were "summarily executed" in Central Luzon last year, and 12 more this year. 

Last February, Joey Estriver, who Polintan identified as a journalist active in Bayan’s social work in Baler, Aurora, was seized by suspected military men. His fate still remains unknown.

Polintan said the military has ignored resolutions passed by municipal officials of Mexico and Guagua towns, both in Pampanga, seeking to dismantle military detachments in their communities.

Last year, Mexico Mayor Teddy Tumang approved a resolution asking the military to remove its detachments which he and other local officials blamed for the deteriorating peace and order situation in their town.

"The pattern of the killings and other forms of harassment (shows) that all militant leaders at the national, provincial, and municipal levels are under threat," Polintan said.

Because of this, leaders of Bayan and Bayan Muna have advised their members to change their daily routines and seek protection from local religious leaders, he said.

"But this does not mean that we have been cowed. As a matter of fact, the repression has emboldened us more," he added.

Polintan said he and other Bayan leaders in Central Luzon are also set to appeal to other mayors’ leagues, members of provincial and municipal legislative councils, and peace and order councils in the region to ask them to issue resolutions seeking a halt to summary executions and other forms of harassment of activists and upholding civilian supremacy over the military.