Family of missing transport exec file habeas corpus plea

ANGELES CITY — The family of a Bulacan transport leader, who has remained missing since soldiers and policemen arrested him here last July 3, petitioned the Angeles regional trial court (RTC) the other day to compel the military and police to produce him.

This developed as relatives of victims of summary executions and other human rights violations formally launched on the same day the "Mothers and Relatives against Tyranny" or Martyr which, in a statement, denounced 101 extra-judicial killings, 21 massacres, and 58 "enforced disappearances" in Central Luzon in recent months.

Martyr spokeswoman Jocelyn Javier, widow of a leader of the farmers’ group Anakpawis in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija who was shot dead last year by masked men believed to be soldiers, said the "wave of killings and abductions" in the region has "dramatically increased" after Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan took over the command of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division.

In their habeas corpus petition, the family of Emerlito Lipio, regional council member of the militant Pinag-isang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (PISTON) based in Bulacan, asked this city’s RTC Branch 57 to compel the military to produce him before the court.

Named respondents in the petition were Senior Inspector Rene Aspe of the Angeles City police; 1Lt. Usmalik Tabayan, team leader of the Army’s 56th Infantry Battalion, and his team members Sgt. Gerardo Branguela, Pfc. Francisco Gadia, Sgt. Gerardo Pascual, and a certain 1Lt. Yago.

Also included in the list of respondents was Lt. Col. Noel Clement, commander of the 69th Infantry Battalion to which the 56th IB belongs.

Lipio was among seven people arrested by a combined team of 56th IB soldiers and Angeles City policemen in Barangay Malabanias here last July 3.

While his companions were either set free due to lack of evidence or after posting bail on charges of illegal possession of explosives, Lipio has gone missing.

"They were brought to the 174th PNP headquarters under Senior Superintendent Policarpio Segubre in Barangay Sto. Domingo in Angeles. They were later blindfolded and transported to undisclosed places where they were allegedly tortured while undergoing intense interrogation by their captors," said Sr. Cecille Ruiz, who chairs the human rights group Karapatan-Gitnang Luzon.

According to Ruiz, a police report included the name of Lipio among those detained at the 174th PNP headquarters, "but he mysteriously disappeared and has not been heard from since then."

Ruiz said Karapatan-Gitnang Luzon is considering filing a separate criminal and administrative complaint against Segubre for Lipio’s disappearance while under the custody of the city police.