ANGELES CITY – The New People’s Army (NPA) unit which released last March 27 three policemen it held as “prisoners” accused yesterday police and military authorities of virtually holding them as captives in their barracks for “endless psychological interrogation”.
Since they were released by the NPA, Inspector Rex Cuntapay, PO1 Alberto Umali and PO 1 Marvin Agasen have allegedly not been allowed to be with their families even during the last Holy Week.
Agasen was not even allowed to attend the graduation of his only daughter who finished elementary school as valedictorian, said Macario Liwanag, spokesperson of the Narciso Antazo Aramil Command based in Rical province, in a statement yesterday.
The three were initially captured by the NPA last January 3 after an ambush in the village of Macabud in Rodriguez, Rizal in which one lawman was killed and two others wounded. They were released last March 27.
“Until now they are not being permitted to go home to be with their families. Against their will, the three are confined to barracks as if they are guilty of any wrongdoings. They are being treated as prisoners in their own camp,” Liwanag said.
Liwanang also claimed in the statement that the three cops are now being “accused of being brainwashed by the NPA and are now being subjected to endless psychological interrogation, a misnomer for psychological torture, by their own superiors in the Philippine National Police (PNP) and by the intelligence agents in the PNP and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). “This is to elicit information against their captors and the NPA custodial forces who took care of them while they were NPA prisoners of war (POWs).”
“They are suffering humiliations from their own comrades in PNP and AFP, a situation they never experienced while in the hands of the NPA,” he added.
Liwanag reported that as soon as they were released by the NPA, the three “were brought to the provincial PNP headquarters in Hilltop, Dolores, Taytay, Rizal and were not allowed to go out of the camp.”
“They were not even allowed to visit their family even during the Lenten Season. Even P01 Agasen was not allowed to attend the graduation of his only daughter even if it’s one of his ardent wishes upon release,” he said.
“The NPA released him a day before the graduation for him to attend and to be able to pin the numerous medals garnered by his daughter who graduated valedictorian in her class,” he also said.
Liwanag said the three policemen are allegedly being “coerced by their superiors to speak lies against the NPA which is hard for them to do because they are basically good men and good officers and gentlemen.”
“The three former POWs are telling the truth when they speak out their minds that they were treated fairly and humanely by the NPA,” he said, adding that “they were arrested, detained, investigated by proper revolutionary judicial authorities, treated as POWs and unilaterally released for humanitarian reason by the Democratic Revolutionary Government.”
“But since they still remain with the PNP, we won’t be surprised if they would eventually recant in public the good praises they said about the NPA after their release.
As PNP members, they are obliged to follow the command of their superiors, but these won’t remove the fact that they were treated humanely and leniently by the NPA and that they already know the real situation of the Philippine society where the police and the military are being used to prop-up a corrupt and anti-people Arroyo regime,” Liwanag also said.
Since they were released by the NPA, Inspector Rex Cuntapay, PO1 Alberto Umali and PO 1 Marvin Agasen have allegedly not been allowed to be with their families even during the last Holy Week.
Agasen was not even allowed to attend the graduation of his only daughter who finished elementary school as valedictorian, said Macario Liwanag, spokesperson of the Narciso Antazo Aramil Command based in Rical province, in a statement yesterday.
The three were initially captured by the NPA last January 3 after an ambush in the village of Macabud in Rodriguez, Rizal in which one lawman was killed and two others wounded. They were released last March 27.
“Until now they are not being permitted to go home to be with their families. Against their will, the three are confined to barracks as if they are guilty of any wrongdoings. They are being treated as prisoners in their own camp,” Liwanag said.
Liwanang also claimed in the statement that the three cops are now being “accused of being brainwashed by the NPA and are now being subjected to endless psychological interrogation, a misnomer for psychological torture, by their own superiors in the Philippine National Police (PNP) and by the intelligence agents in the PNP and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). “This is to elicit information against their captors and the NPA custodial forces who took care of them while they were NPA prisoners of war (POWs).”
“They are suffering humiliations from their own comrades in PNP and AFP, a situation they never experienced while in the hands of the NPA,” he added.
Liwanag reported that as soon as they were released by the NPA, the three “were brought to the provincial PNP headquarters in Hilltop, Dolores, Taytay, Rizal and were not allowed to go out of the camp.”
“They were not even allowed to visit their family even during the Lenten Season. Even P01 Agasen was not allowed to attend the graduation of his only daughter even if it’s one of his ardent wishes upon release,” he said.
“The NPA released him a day before the graduation for him to attend and to be able to pin the numerous medals garnered by his daughter who graduated valedictorian in her class,” he also said.
Liwanag said the three policemen are allegedly being “coerced by their superiors to speak lies against the NPA which is hard for them to do because they are basically good men and good officers and gentlemen.”
“The three former POWs are telling the truth when they speak out their minds that they were treated fairly and humanely by the NPA,” he said, adding that “they were arrested, detained, investigated by proper revolutionary judicial authorities, treated as POWs and unilaterally released for humanitarian reason by the Democratic Revolutionary Government.”
“But since they still remain with the PNP, we won’t be surprised if they would eventually recant in public the good praises they said about the NPA after their release.
As PNP members, they are obliged to follow the command of their superiors, but these won’t remove the fact that they were treated humanely and leniently by the NPA and that they already know the real situation of the Philippine society where the police and the military are being used to prop-up a corrupt and anti-people Arroyo regime,” Liwanag also said.
