THE Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed the ruling issued by the Court of Appeals (CA) ordering the military to immediately release from its custody the two University of the Philippines (UP) student-activists and a farmer who have been missing since they were abducted in Hagonoy, Bulacan, in June 2006 on suspicion that they were members of the communist New People’s Army.
In a decision written by Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, who retired from the judiciary on Friday, the Court agreed with the appellate court’s findings that the officers of 7th Infantry “Kaugnay” Division of the Army, then under Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, could be behind the abduction of Sherlyn Cadapan, Karen Empeño and farmer Manuel Merino.
The SC held that the CA was correct in giving credence to the testimony of Raymond Manalo, who was able to identify some of the respondent military officers as the ones responsible for the abduction of the two UP students and Merino.
Apart from Palparan, also being held accountable for the enforced disappearance of the three were Lt. Col. Rogelio Boac, commander of the 56th Infantry Battalion; Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado, commander of the 25th Infantry Battalion; 2Lt. Francis Mirabelle Samson, Arnel Enriquez and Donald Caigas, officers assigned to the 7ID; and the 24th Infantry Battalion.
“The incumbent commanding general of the 7th Infantry Division and the incumbent battalion commander of the 24th Infantry Battalion, both of the Army, are enjoined to fully ensure the release of Sherlyn Cadapan, Karen Empeño and Manuel Merino from detention,” the Court said.
Manalo, in his testimony given before the appellate court, recounted that he together with his brother Reynaldo were taken away from their respective houses in San Ildefonso, Bulacan, by military men on February 14, 2006, and were detained for more than one year in various military camps in Southern Luzon before managing to escape on August 13, 2007.
During their detention, Manalo said he met and managed to talk to the two missing UP students, who were also being detained by the respondents along with farmer Manuel Merino.
Raymond further narrated that she saw Cadapan and Empeño being subjected to torture like water treatment through the nose and electric shocks.
He also claimed seeing their abductors burning Merino’s body.
On September 28, 2008, the CA directed the Armed Forces to release from detention the two missing UP students after establishing that they are being detained by elements of the Army’s 7ID since their abduction on June 26, 2006, in Hagonoy, Bulacan.
The appellate court reversed its June 2007 decision dismissing the writ of habeas corpus petition filed by the families of the three missing persons based on the testimony of Manalo.
“Since the right to life, liberty and security of a person is at stake, the proceedings should not be delayed and execution of any decision thereon must be expedited as soon as possible since any form of delay, even for a day, may jeopardize the very rights that these writs seek to immediately protect,” the SC stressed.
The CA, however, cleared former President Arroyo, then Armed Forces chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr., then Army chief Romeo Tolentino and then National Police chief Avelino Razon in the case.
Just last month, the criminal charges were filed against Palparan and several other military personnel with the Department of Justice in connection with the disappearance of Cadapan, Empeno and Merino.
The complaint, which was filed by the parents of the two missing UP students based on Manalo’s testimony, accused Palparan and the other military officers of committing rape, serious physical injuries, arbitrary detention, maltreatment, grave threats and grave coercion.
