Arrested son of Cordillera rebel leader faces charges

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – The son of the spokesman of the underground Cordillera People’s Democratic Front (CPDF) taken into custody last Monday by police and military intelligence agents faces one frustrated murder and two murder cases in various courts in Mt. Province.

Chief Superintendent Benjamin Magalong, Cordillera police director, confirmed yesterday the arrest of Grayson Naogsan, son of CPDF spokesman Simon Naogsan.

The young Naogsan was reportedly taken by operatives of the Regional Intelligence Unit 14, Regional Intelligence Division of the Cordillera police, Baguio City and Mt. Province police and Military Intelligence Group 1 of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

Magalong said Naogsan faces one frustrated murder and two murder cases in Bontoc, Mt. Province’s capital town. 

Earlier, family members and the Baguio City-based human rights group Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) were reportedly alarmed after Naogsan went “missing.”

But Magalong said intelligence agents took Naogsan, allegedly a political officer of the Abra Provincial Party Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines-Ilocos Cordillera Regional Committee, at around 3:30 p.m. last Monday while he and a companion were having coffee in a shopping mall here.

Naogsan and his companion, the CHRA said, were shown, at gunpoint, an arrest warrant that bore Naogsan’s name.

Naogsan was handcuffed and was separated from his companion who was then told that Naogsan would be taken to Camp Crame, CHRA spokesman Jude Baggo said. 

Naogsan was reportedly led out of the mall through the backstairs by three of the men who used a jacket to cover his handcuffs. 

Two hours later, Naogsan’s wife reportedly called his cell phone and he said that he was already out of Baguio and was supposedly being brought to Camp Crame. 

Baggo said Naogsan’s wife last heard of him Tuesday morning.

Magalong said Naogsan carried a P700,000 bounty from the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

More than five years ago, Naogsan’s brother Simon Jr. was slain in a firefight with government troops in Abra.