'Bounty for rebel leader's son P3.2M, not P700K'

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -  With a very huge sum on his head, Grayson Naogsan, son of Cordillera Peoples Democratic Front spokesperson Simon Naogsan, is really a “bigshot” in the rebel movement, a police official said. 

Government wanted him for P3.2 million cash reward, said Cordillera police director Chief Supt. Benjamin Magalong, instead of only P700,000 as earlier reported. The younger Naogsan was taken by policemen a week ago in a mall in Baguio City,   

Magalong said ‘the monetary reward the younger Naogsan carried under JO No. 10-2009 dated April 23, 2009 as reported earlier was updated and the bounty was increased to P3.2 million under Armed Forces of the Philippines/Philippine National Police Joint Resolution Number 72-2012 dated August 28, 2012.’

The younger Naogsan who took the nom de guerres “Jose/Jayson/Fagway/Cynthian," is facing 10 counts of murder and one count of crime of rebellion. He is an alleged member of the Kilusang Larangang Guerilya Marco, Ilocos Cordillera Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army and reportedly operated along the “East Chico Line Team," police said,

Judge Artemio B. Marrero of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 35 in Bontoc, Mountain Province, Judge Joseph Baguilat RTC Branch 14 of Lagawe, Ifugao and Judge Corpus Alzate of RTC of Abra issued the 11 warrants of arrest, Magalong said.

But according to the Manila-based human rights group Karapatan,  the arrest of the alleged “high-valued rebel” was based on “trumped up charges.” This is aside from the disrespect of the PNP to Naogsan’s relatives, especially his wife, Rose who was reportedly led to a run-around in Manila and various areas in the Cordillera when they started to locate him, the group said.  “The PNP showed callousness to the feelings of the relatives who were anxious to know the whereabouts and the condition of Naogsan,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan.

After almost a week of searching, Palabay added, relatives finally found him in Ifugao Provincial Jail, after he was taken by police and military agents on Nov. 5 in Baguio City.

The Baguio-based Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA), meanwhile, claim that Naogsan was arrested on the basis of a defective warrant of arrest issued by the Bontoc Regional Trial Court Branch 35 which bore the name of a certain “Jason Naogsan” and not Grayson Naogsan.

The said warrant was amended, Jude Baggo, spokesperson of the CHRA said, to change “Jason” to “Grayson."

“No one should be arrested simply because he is a son or a relative of a person who is a member of the revolutionary movement. The government has not grown tired of parading its arbitrariness,” Palabay said, adding that, “it has not learned from the case of Rolly Panesa, the security guard whom they mistook for a certain Benjamin Mendoza.”

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