AFP doing background check on Filipino-American activist

MANILA, Philippines - Melissa the activist? or Melissa the NPA? – This is now the focus of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ investigation on a Filipino-American who accused the military of abducting and torturing her.

The AFP is conducting a background investigation surrounding the case of a Fil-Am female activist who, after accusing military agents of abducting and torturing her to force her into admission that she is an active member of the New People’s Army (NPA), is now being tagged as an active rebel fighter.

The pro-government and military-backed Alliance for National Democracy (ANAD) and the Bantay party-list groups, said that Melissa Roxas is in fact Ka Aya, who’s an active NPA fighter operating in Aurora province.

“Our military lawyers are also studying if Roxas could be held criminally liable for being identified as an NPA fighter,” AFP Public Information Office (PIO) chief, Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. said.

Also, he said the military would support, in terms of providing other vital information on the communist movement in the country, to the two party-list groups if they intend to file charges against Roxas. “We will provide information to support the case that will be filed by the two party-list groups,” Brawner said.

As to Roxas’ motive in coming up with her accusations, Brawner said they could only surmise for now, that she is being used by the NPA out to disrupt the country’s democratic processes. Brawner said that this could also be directly intended to humiliate President Arroyo during her forthcoming visit to the United States as per invitation by US President Barack Obama.

“So her coming out might have been timed to create an impression of a bad Philippine governance before the eye of the American people,” Brawner said.

ANAD and Bantay Reps. Pastor Alcover and Jovito Palparan said Roxas could have been abducted by her own comrades to prevent her from pursuing her plans of giving up the armed struggle.

As an active NPA fighter, Roxas has reportedly expressed her intentions of going down the hills which the NPA leadership saw as a major setback in terms of the foreign financial support they’ve been receiving through Roxas’ foreign contacts. Alcover and Palparan even presented photographs of Roxas and a video footage showing her while undergoing basic gun handling and military training at an NPA camp in the Sierra Madre mountains in 2006.

“For us (military) this is a good development because we are seeing the other side of Melissa Roxas,” Brawner, referring to the video footages of Roxas in the company of NPA fighters.