Freed Marcos bust bombers cry torture

BAGUIO CITY — The alleged Marcos bust bombers, who were freed by the court on Thursday, said that their three days in the hands of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) operatives in Camp Aguinaldo were "dark days" of psychological pain.

Josephine Perez and Evelyn Bedana claimed during a press conference held here yesterday that their captors forbid them to talk to each other and were threatened to be buried, poisoned or burned with cigarettes.

Perez said she was also threatened to be stripped of her clothes.

Both also claimed they were blindfolded while being interrogated and were repeatedly asked who they were.

Bedana, alias Ka Rhoda (formerly reported by the military as Araceli Arciaga), was suspected by the military to be the secretary of the Ilocos Cordillera Regional Party Committee (ICRC) of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) while Perez, alias Ka Loren, was suspected to be a political officer of CPP-NPA’s Komiteng Larangan Gerilya Sinag.

The two were blamed for the December 30, 2002 bombing of the Marcos Bust in Taloy Sur, Benguet earlier admitted by the NPA’s Chadli Molintas Command.

Baguio-based human rights group DINTEG said the two are mulling filing counter charges against ISAFP and the Northern Luzon Command (NOLCOM)

"We are seriously considering it," DINTEG executive director Beverly Longid said.

DINTEG said it will also hold consultations with 14 Ilocos-based Aglipayan (Phil. Independent Church) priests and workers indicted and similarly arrested by operatives of ISAFP two years ago for the December 31, 1999 murder of former rebel priest-turned paramilitary group leader Conrado Balweg.

All were later freed by the court for lack of evidences against them.

Longid said they have the same circumstances with Perez and Bedana and were also mulling a class suit against ISAFP.

However, Longid said Perez and Berdana will have to undergo "psychological processing" because of the alleged torture they experienced. — Artemio Dumlao