Court orders release of 2 teenage punks

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — The court ordered yesterday the release of two teenagers aged 15 and 16 who were among the 11 punks arrested and detained by the Benguet police last February for allegedly raiding an Army detachment in Mankayan town.

The two teeners, one of them a 15-year-old girl, were released by virtue of an order from Judge Agapito Laoagan Jr. of Regional Trial Court Branch 64.

Laoagan acted on the May 19 motion of the provincial prosecutor’s office on the release of the two, taking into consideration the Juvenile Justice System Act (Republic Act 9344), which President Arroyo recently signed into law and which took effect last May 21.

RA 9344 authorizes the release of accused minors on recognizance of their parents or in their absence, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The 16-year-old girl, an incoming high school junior, said she now dreams of taking up law so she could help fellow punks wrongly accused like them.

Veteran human rights lawyer and Baguio City councilor Jose Molintas, who belongs to the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), said the other detained punks should also be released because the court has ruled that they were illegally arrested.

FLAG lawyers are poised to file 11 cases this week against six Benguet policemen, including Senior Superintendent Villamor Bumanglag, provincial police director, for arbitrary detention for arresting the 11 Sagada-bound punks last Feb. 14 and subsequently indicting them for robbery with homicide and arson in connection with the NPA raid.

The five other policemen are Superintendent Brent Madjako, chief of the 1604th Police Mobile Group; Senior Inspector Joseph Paulo Bayongasan, SPO1 Alyson Kalang-ed, and PO2s Jonathan Pucya, Wendell Baglao and James Ayan Jr.

Last March, the 11 punks filed separate criminal cases against the policemen with the Benguet prosecutor’s office for violating their rights as detainees for not providing them with lawyers during their interrogation.

They also filed an administrative complaint against them with the National Police Commission for grave misconduct, oppression and conduct unbecoming of police officers for allegedly torturing them.