Masked men abduct Bulacan peasant leader

TARLAC CITY — A leader of a peasant group was abducted from his Bulacan home late Monday night by four ski mask-wearing armed men whom the victim’s family suspects to be government troops.

Ernesto Santiago, a 46-year-old father of four, was asleep when the armed men forced him and his wife, Juliana, out of their bedroom in their house in Sitio Pulikan, Barangay Dulong Malabon in Pulilan, Bulacan.

According to reports, the armed men ordered the Santiago couple and two of their children aged 15 and 11 to lie face down on the floor while their cohorts acted as lookouts.

Juliana recalled that the masked men asked her husband to identify himself and how old he is.

Her 11-year-old daughter said she saw one of the armed men wearing a ski mask and camouflage shorts.

Lt. Col. Noel Clement, commanding officer of the 56th Infantry Brigade under the Army’s 7th Infantry Division based at Camp Aquino here, said he has no troops deployed in Pulilan, Bulacan although it is part of his jurisdiction.

"Our area of responsibility covers parts of Bulacan, but I have no men stationed in Pulilan," he said, adding that his men are deployed only in the Bulacan towns of Angat, Sta. Maria and Pandi.

Clement said he has not received any reports about Santiago’s abduction, although he is willing to help look for him.

Prior to the abduction, Santiago’s daughter Jennifer, 22, said a man brandishing a gun peeped through their window and asked her and her husband to identify themselves.

"Pinakita ko yung cedula ko sa kanya. Hindi ko alam na pagkatapos pala nun, dudukutin nila si tatay (I showed him my cedula. I did not know that after that incident, my father would be abducted)," she said.

She quoted the man as saying, "Huwag kayong mag-alala, mababait naman kami (Don’t worry, we are nice people)."

But she said the man warned them to keep the incident to themselves, otherwise something bad might befall them. Nevertheless, she reported what happened the following morning.

Santiago is a local coordinator of the Koalisyon Kontra Polusyon (KKP), which has been criticizing three Taiwanese factories operating in the area since 1995 for allegedly dumping hazardous wastes into an irrigation system which at least a thousand farmers in Pulilan and Calumpit towns depend on.

Girlie Padilla, acting secretary-general of the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace and secretariat head of the Stop the Killings in the Philippines Campaign, said the KKP has been active in its movement for three months.

Padilla, together with 11 members of the Hong Kong-Chinese Mission for Human Rights and Peace, said they stumbled upon Santiago’s abduction as they were investigating the human rights situation and the spate of killings in Central Luzon.

Padilla said it is up to Santiago’s family if they want to file a petition for habeas corpus, but in the absence of any concrete proof on the abductors’ identities, they may find it difficult to pursue the case.