3 Army officers summoned to public hearing

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked three Army officers to attend a public hearing today on the abduction-killings of two human rights activists in Oriental Mindoro last April.

Justice Undersecretary Jose Calida, who heads a task force probing the murders of Eden Marcellana and Eddie Gumanoy, said they want to hear the side of Col. Jovito Palparan, former chief of the Army’s 204th Infantry Brigade, and his replacement, Col. Juanito Gomez.

He said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has also sent a subpoena to M/Sgt. Donald Caigas, a principal suspect in the case.

Calida said they also want the three Army officers to shed light on allegations that members of the 204th IB have committed human rights abuses against Oriental Mindoro residents suspected of being members or sympathizers of the New People’s Army.

The NBI is readying charges against Caigas, who was positively identified by witnesses as the one accompanying Marcellana and Gumanoy on April 21, the day they went missing. The two activists were found dead the next day.

To be charged along with Caigas are Aniano Flores alias Silver and a certain "Waway."

Caigas was arrested at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig last June 3 on the strength of a warrant issued against him in 1994 for a robbery case. He is now out on bail.

Meanwhile, Calida said military higher-ups have assured him of help in looking into the death threats that he and his family had received through text messages.

The threatening text messages, he said, stopped after the harassment that he and his family had been suffering was publicized.

Calida said he has received intelligence information that a military man was ordered to "do a project" on him.

"Whatever that means, I don’t know," he told The STAR in a phone interview.

Calida said the threats apparently stemmed from his insistence on Caigas’ arrest at Fort Bonifacio.

"They said it was a disrespect for the soldiers and the military. But they could not defy authority. The task force was created by President Arroyo to look into the matter; we are just doing our job," he said.

Calida said Caigas was also implicated in the harassment of residents of Gloria, Oriental Mindoro on April 20.

Marcellana and Gumanoy, along with other human rights activists, had just come from a fact-finding mission in Gloria town when they were abducted.