There, their eyes were covered again. A man came near Jerry and introduced himself as a human rights worker. The man asked him again if he was an NPA.
Jerry insisted that he was only hunting for wild boars in the forest.
“If you are not an NPA, why do you have a carbine?”
Jerry soon realized that the soldiers would no longer believe that he had other companions who owned the gun. Feeling that he was at a losing end because the soldiers insisted that he “owned” the gun, he decided to confirm the military’s accusations and made up stories about the alleged Communist rebel ‘Ka Daryll’ and ‘Ka Lando,’ he often heard in the news and in countless radio dramas.
But when the soldier asked if he was involved in the recent encounters in Lingig, Jerry said ‘no’.
After the interview, the soldiers brought Jerry and the other two men to Boston police station.
Presenting them as members of the NPAs, the soldiers wanted them put inside the jail but the chief police refused because the jail was under repair. So, the soldiers brought them back to the detachment.
At night, it drizzled and Jerry and the two men stayed in a hut. The hut was only covered by a “trapal” (canvas), which had several holes, so the three men did not sleep the whole night because of the water dripping from the holes. Each of them had one hand tied to a tree while the other hand was handcuffed.
Early in the morning of the next day, the soldiers brought them to the police station again and were made to sign documents without reading the contents. After signing, they were set free.
SIX KILOMETERS from Simulao in Barangay Caatihan, Salito Masumbid, 41, told the fact-finding team that soldiers also took his blue TMX 155 motorcycle early in October. He said the motorcycle was his priced possession because he needed it to go to his farm.
Salito Masumbid, 41, lost his motorcycle inside a kamarin (abaca storehouse) when a group of soldiers entered barangay Caatihan in early October. (davaotoday.com photo by by Russ Ybanez)
Early in the morning of October 6, Salito went to his abaca farm in the mountains of Tubungan and left his motorcycle inside the kamarin (a Manobo term for an abaca store house). But when he came back at 3 pm in the afternoon, he was surprised that the kamarin was open and was in a mess.
He lost several items including two pieces of sickle, 15 meters of rope, two meters of tent cut from a 15-meter roll. He also saw the plastic container that earlier contained gasoline emptied in the ground. Outside the kamarin, six banana trees were fallen. About a hundred shells of coconuts, emptied of their meat, also covered the yard.
Salito said some people from Simulao had seen who took the motorcycle.
Two Simulao residents who bought three sacks of rice from Boston passed by the kamarin on their way home on that day. Soldiers had stopped them on the road, confiscated the three sacks of rice they bought from Boston, suspecting that those were rice supplies for the NPA. The soldiers told them to get their barangay captain to prove that the rice were not for the NPA.
“When they passed by the kamarin, the men still saw the motorcycle at the back,” Salito said.
The witnesses said there were many soldiers and were in full battle gears but didn’t have nameplates.
Salito reported the incident to the barangay. The barangay captain helped him reach the soldiers. Luckily, they found a team still hiking. One soldier said one of their colleagues took the motorcycle.
“Don’t worry, just go to the PNP station tomorrow. You can get it there,” the soldier said.
The next day, Salito went to the police station but his motorcycle was not there. He sought the help of the town mayor. The town mayor phoned a certain Lt. Santander but the soldier only said that he would still ask his men. Salito’s motorcycle was not yet returned to him when the fact finding team arrived.
The soldiers also arrested twelve youth from Caatihan and brought them to the detachment for questioning.
