Another victim, Edmund Cutor, 19, said two soldiers beat him at the headquarters. They hit him at the stomach while his hands were tied. He was also forced to admit that he was an NPA
“The soldier told me that I should admit that I am an NPA because my colleagues already told them that I was an NPA,” Cutor said. He did not admit, though.
On Wednesday morning, the soldiers brought the 13 farmers to the Monkayo police station where they were put in jail.
Cutor said police took mug shots of him, carrying a placard with his name and position as an ‘NPA team leader.’
Police release the 13 farmers after more than 36 hours of detention. (contributed photo)
“I felt like I was on the ‘wanted’ list,” he said, “I told them ‘I am not an NPA leader, Sir. You knew what I was doing in the forest. Why are you treating us like this?’”
In a statement, Roel Agustin II, spokesperson of the NPA’s Conrado Heredia Command, said the March 5 ambush of the 25th IB’s Alpha Company in Monkayo lasted an hour at dawn. Agustin said four soldiers were killed during the ambush and “several others” were wounded but Captain Emmanuel Garcia, spokesperson of the 10th Infantry Division, said only one soldier was killed and three were wounded.
The military picked up the 13 farmers on March 7, two days after the NPA ambush. At that time, the 13 were preparing to leave the forest after a week’s work of cutting wood and lumber.
Cutor said they did not even know there was an encounter. He said they only saw a helicopter roaming above them on Saturday, the day after the supposed encounter. He said they did not even hear any exchange of gunfire.
Villaniso and Cutor said the soldiers themselves gave them cloth and hot water to apply hot compress on the bruises inflicted on their abdomens. They suspected, however, that the soldiers only wanted to hide the torture marks.
“I am angry with them. They beat us even if we did not commit any crime,” Cutor said, “They can’t even prove their accusations against us.”
The other victims also complained that their heads were wrapped with cellophanes so that they cannot breathe. Other were made to squat under the burning sun, with knives pointed at their necks.
Soldiers brought the 13 farmers to the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office in Nabunturan, where cases of illegal possession of explosives, murder and frustrated murder were filed against them.
The Monkayo farmers’ detention came barely a month after the 39th IB filed a case against seven Sta. Cruz farmers for “staging an ambush against them.” Union of Peoples Lawyers in Mindanao said the case was trumped up.
The indigenous people’s partylist Katribu, the human rights group Karapatan and UPLM lawyers secured the release of the 13 Monkayo farmers, who spent more than 36 hours in jail.
Kelly Delgado, spokesperson of Karapatan in Southern Mindanao, said soldiers always blame civilians and accused them as NPAs every time they suffer losses in the battle against the NPAs. (Grace S. Uddin/ davaotoday.com)
