HR group slams ex-colonel’s appointment as NCIP chair

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — Human rights group Karapatan yesterday slammed the appointment of Allen Capuyan as chairman of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). 

Capuyan, a retired Army colonel, was appointed by President Duterte on May 27. He was linked to the P6.4-billion shabu smuggling controversy in 2017.  

“He had been primarily involved in intelligence work, serving as Intelligence Service Unit chief in Davao from 1997 to 2000 and chief of operations of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) thereafter,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.

Last March, Capuyan was also named executive director of the national secretariat of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.?

Palabay said Capuyan’s record “was plagued with irregularities,” citing his involvement in the smuggling of P6.4 billion worth of drugs into the country in May 2017.

Controversial Customs fixer Mark Taguba referred to Capuyan as “big brother” in the smuggling and corruption at the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

Taguba said Capuyan was the same man who provided him via mail tariff codes that were supposed to give him access to the green lane or express lane, which exempts shipments from X-ray inspection. 

Capuyan was then an official of the Manila International Airport Authority. He resigned his post in March 2018. A month later, Duterte named him presidential adviser for indigenous people’s concerns under the Office of the President.

A military source cited in a Newsbreak report in 2005 identified Capuyan as the “number one suspect” behind the ISAFP’s wiretapping operation that sought to monitor phone conversations of those they believed to be part of the opposition during the administration of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.– With Christina Mendez