Army officer denies ‘raid’ on Kalinga group’s HQ

BAGUIO CITY — The military has denied having swooped down on the headquarters of a Kalinga-based civil society group, describing the allegation as "a blatant lie, malicious and concocted."

Lt. Col. Christopher Estella, commanding officer of the Army’s 21st Infantry Battalion, said he probed the report that his men "ransacked" the office of the Tomiangan Unity for Progress and Action (TUPAC) last Aug. 10 and it turned out to be untrue.

He bewailed that the "falsehood" has "stigmatized our troops."

Jimmy Suwagon, human rights desk officer of the Cordillera People’s Alliance based in Kalinga, earlier claimed that the soldiers illegally searched the entire building and that one of them even pointed a gun at TUPAC secretary Roger Lagansi.

Estella, however, said his men did not force their way into the TUPAC office, but "politely asked" permission to enter from the people holding a meeting there.

He said what made his men suspicious was that the TUPAC officers were meeting late at night — about 9 p.m.

Estella also denied that his men tore down posters of Bayan Muna in the TUPAC office, as Suwagon claimed.

"Those people conducting the meeting were the ones who (hastily) removed the posters," he said.

Estella said the search of the premises was part of the military’s "standard operating procedure," adding that his men allegedly found "communist documents, specifically radio sets, call signs, matrix, list of frequencies and other subversive documents."

Estella suspects that the accusations against his men were meant "to discredit the recovered communist documents and divert the issue."