Mistaken as NPA leader in Negros cops arrest retired teacher, 70

CEBU, Philippines – “If you cannot do your things right, you’d better go out of that assignment, go back to basics, and study your lessons well because government is spending lots of money so you become police officers.”

This statement was issued by Commission on Human Rights field investigator Jess Cañete upon knowing that 70-year-old Constantino Saga, a respected and well-known person in Tanjay City and a retired division supervisor of the Department of Education, was arrested by the police who mistook him as Father Frank Fernandez, who had been tagged as the No. 1 NPA leader in Negros Island.

Upon hearing the narration of Saga, a resident of Legaspi Street in Tanjay City, Cañete said, “it was a very ridiculous thing to happen. It was hasty, very sloppy and discouraging to note that Saga was under surveillance for the last four months on suspicion that he is Father Frank Fernandez. ... Palpak!”

Saga and wife Necita, 75 years old and also a retired school teacher, were riding a Ceres bus from Dumaguete to Tanjay when flagged down by a patrol car near the Magsaysay Elementary School in Sibulan town at 12:30 p.m.

One of the policemen, whom Saga could not identify, boarded the bus and ordered him to disembark and asked for his identification cards. He obliged with three IDs, while Necita was asking the police to tell them what were their infractions, if any. Both just came from the doctor for a fractured shoulder of Saga.

Two of the bus passengers who were Tanjayanons, Joel Borromeo and his wife who was a doctor, attested that they knew Saga is a resident of Tanjay and not Father Fernandez.

Despite the couple’s pleadings, they were brought to the provincial police headquarters. While on transit, a policewoman asked if Saga knows a certain Censia Saga, who is an employee of Tanjay City Hall. He told the policewoman that Censia is her younger sister.

Chief Inspector George Badon, Tanjay City Police chief, reportedly asked Saga also if he knows Superintendent Constantino Barot, former chief of the Dumaguete Police. Saga answered that Barot is the nephew of his wife Necita.

Not contented of the information, the police further asked Saga if he knew City Prosecutor Arnel Zerna, who Saga confirmed as his neighbor in Tanjay. Finally, Saga was asked to name any policeman in Tanjay, to which he told him that the husband of her sister’s daughter is the son of City Councilor Juanito Condes, former Tanjay Police chief.

Saga and wife Necita were then brought to the conference room with lights off and doors locked, and were interviewed again. Somebody took pictures of them, and he was asked to identify a bond paper-size picture of him and wife, which he acknowledged as theirs and was taken during a burial of a friend in Tanjay City months ago.

They were then showed with four small photos of Father Fernandez, while in his younger years, then the police told them that, based on their intelligence gathering, Fernandez is in Negros Oriental and that Saga’s face is similar to that of the rebel-priest.

Saga later said he merely wanted the police officers involved to clear his name and make a public apology for mistaking him as Father Fernandez. However, since Friday, nothing was done on this.

Cañete, on the other hand, said this incident has reached the CHR central office and that he received a call from the commissioner-in-charge to act on this. This will put a stain on the image of the police force itself because two or three police officers failed to study their lessons carefully and could not identify between the real Father Fernandez and a retired teacher who has been a Tanjay City resident.

Negros Oriental Police Provincial Director, Senior Superintendent Mariano Natuel Jr is now conducting a full-blown investigation on the matter, said Cañete to the media.

Cañete added that Saga was already placed under custodial investigation, not under invitation as earlier declared by the police. He said that when a person is being restricted for four hours, he is considered as having been arrested, and that the Miranda warning should have been read to Saga at that time.

Saga was not also informed if he had violated certain laws, while being picked up in broad day light in full view of the public, said Cañete.