BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – A militant group condemned authorities for the continued “illegal detention” of a woman peasant leader, who it said also worked as an El Niño consultant at the time of her “unlawful arrest” in northern Cagayan last March 22.
The Families of the Disappeared for Justice or Desaparecidos said Myrna Cruz Abraham, 55, is now being detained at the Tuguegarao City jail on allegations that she is a high-ranking communist leader in the region.
But Col. Loreto Magundayao, chief of civil-military operations of the Isabela-based Army’s 5th Infantry Division, said Villanueva is the second deputy secretary of the Cagayan Valley Regional Party Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army. – Charlie Lagasca