2 freed activists demand perpetrators to be held accountable
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – It was around 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. in the morning of April 13, 2019 when two community organizers, John Griefen Arlegui and Reynaldo Viernes, were about to go home after posting campaign materials of partylist group Bayan Muna and then senatorial candidate Neri Colmenares. Aboard their kulong-kulong, a tricycle type of vehicle, the two noticed a red car following them. When they reached a church along the Angat-Pandi Road in Bulacan, they were cornered by the car. Four men wearing bonnets alighted from the vehicle, another van came and several men in motorcycles followed. The unidentified men pointed a gun at them, and forced them inside the vehicle.
“We were electrocuted, beaten up, blindfolded and hand-cuffed inside the vehicle. We didn’t know where we were until the next morning,” Arlegui said in an interview with Bulatlat.
Arlegui, an organizer of urban poor group Kadamay and Viernes, Anakbayan organizer, were later charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives and were detained for almost six years. On February 4, 2025, the two were released after Malolos Regional Trial Court Branch 78 President Judge Golda J. Pablo-Salamat, granted their petition for demurrer to evidence and dismissed their cases.
The court said that the prosecution failed to establish an unbroken chain of custody of the allegedly confiscated firearms and explosives. The court further emphasized that the prosecution’s presentation of the case raised serious doubts about the legitimacy of the supposed buy-bust operation.
In a statement, their counsel, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), said that the case of Arlegui and Viernes “underscores the dangerous trend of using fabricated criminal charges as a tool to suppress progressive political candidates and their supporters.”
Torture
After enduring the physical torture inside the vehicle, Arlegui and Viernes also experienced mental torture as they were forced by their captors to “cooperate with them.”
Still blindfolded, Arlegui said they were brought to a place where they heard firing. They were interrogated separately. Their captors forced them to admit that they are members of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army.
“We asserted that we are organizers and we just support Bayan Muna and Colmenares’s campaign during the 2019 elections,” Arlegui told Bulatlat, adding that they only had campaign materials inside their kulong-kulong when they were abducted.
From there they traveled again. It was then that they discovered that they were with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Nueva Ecija after their captors removed their blindfold early morning of April 14, 2019.
“There they took our mugshots and still did not stop convincing us to cooperate. They also said that we would be released if we name names,” Arlegui and Viernes said.
They were detained for three months at the CIDG Nueva Ecija. And half of those three months, Arlegui said they were being forced to admit that they are members of the CPP-NPA. “They also offered us a house, work and even business just to name names and tell them ‘plans’ (of the members of CPP-NPA) that we don’t know about,” Arlegui said.
Read: 2 abducted urban poor activists surfaced in Bulacan police detention
The captors also threatened to harm their families if they would not cooperate.
The mental torture had a toll on Arlegui and Vierne’s mental state that is why when they were transferred to Bulacan Provincial Jail in July 2019, they were nervous. “We were nervous because we didn’t know what awaited us,” Arlegui said.
What the prosecution claims
The prosecution presented two witnesses – Pat. Joey Geminiano and PCpl. Leonesa Pigao. The supposed buyer of firearms named Pat. Jessie Gubat did not appear in court.
Gubat claimed that an informant said that Viernes sells unregistered firearms. This is when a team was formed and conducted an operation on April 13, 2019. They claimed that Gubat was able to buy a pistol from Viernes and received the marked money. This is when they arrested Viernes and Arlegui, and claimed that they recovered firearms and ammunition.
However, the court noted that during the inventory and marking of the evidence, “there were no other witnesses other than the two accused.” The witnesses also do not have proof that the items that they seized from Viernes and Arlegui were turned over to the investigator.
According to the court, “Although the hand grenades, firearms and ammunition were marked (as evidence), there is no documentary evidence proving that the police officers complied with the chain of custody rule under the PNP [Philippine National Police] manual.”
“Therefore, the prosecution failed to establish that the subject hand grenade was properly turned over to the investigating officer for investigation and later to the evidence custodian for safekeeping,” the resolution read.
It added, “The police officers’ manifest disregard of the rules only shows that they did not perform their duty in a regular manner. The irregularities are clear as daylight.”
The absence of Gubat in the hearing also “raises questions about the legitimacy of the transaction and evidence presented,” the court said.
Six years of wasted time
For Josephine, Arlegui’s mother, her son’s six years of detention is wasted time. She said, had they not been abducted and jailed, he could have finished a vocational course and eventually be working today.
Arlegui also said that he could have finished his studies, and might be able to help in the medical needs of his orphaned and sick nephew.
Arlegui was 19 years old then at the time of the abduction while Viernes was 24 years old.
Viernes’s daughter was two years old when he was arrested. “I could have spent more time with her and our family,” he said.
Meanwhile, for Arlegui and Viernes, the fight continues.
“We need to continue because our situation did not change and people need help,” Viernes said.
Arlegui added that it is also crucial to hold the perpetrators accountable.
“The police and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) should be held accountable. It is because of them that many years of our lives were wasted because of trumped up charges,” he said. (RTS, RVO)
Leave a Comment