After his arrest: NDF consultant alleges military stole his things

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — "During my arrest, I was robbed of my personal belongings. Until now, my phone, journal, and flash drives haven't been returned," alleged Roy "Ka Toto" Erecre, a consultant of the National Democratic Front (NDF) for Visayas.

Erecre, in his statement obtained by The Freeman yesterday, said that what ought to be a follow-up check up of his being a diabetic turned out to be an island-resort hopping with his aide when they were arrested in Davao City last May 7.

The prize of his head was worth P5.6 million, the reports said. "In the crucial time following my abduction, government agents denied me the right to counsel, as they interrogated and threatened and manhandled me. While locked up from public scrutiny, I was accused of trumped up charges and misrepresented as guilty felon through trial by publicity," he alleged.

Erecre claimed he was arrested on his being a consultant to the peace panel of the NDF in its peace negotiations with the government. It has been a role he played since PNoy' mother, then president Cory Aquino, opened peace overtures with the rebels, after the EDSA Revolution, he said.

"Then and now, the duplicity of this government at feigning negotiations in order to gather intelligence information against its perceived enemies has reached scandalous heights," Erecre alleged.

Following his arrest, Erecre said he was subjected to "incommunicado by transferring me from one detention cell to another across the seas until finally jailing me in Bohol where I once studied and then learned the necessity and worked for the realization of a systemic revolution."

Sources from the Bohol District Jail, now being run by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, confirmed Erecre was put behind bars and is now waiting for formal investigation and charges. (FREEMAN)