The Philippine Star
December 6, 2024 | 12:00am
For kidnap of 2 Bataan environmental activists
MANILA, Philippines — Criminal and administrative charges were filed yesterday against an official of the National Security Council (NSC) and several officers of the police and military in connection with the kidnapping of two environmental activists in Bataan.
In a 22-page affidavit, complainants Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro urged the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate NSC assistant director general Jonathan Malaya and several members of the Army’s 70th Infantry Battalion (70IB).
The complainants were assisted by the National Union of People’s Lawyers in filing the complaint.
Malaya and his co-respondents face charges for alleged violations of Republic Act 10353 or the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012, RA 9745 or the Anti-Torture Act of 2009 and RA 74388 or the Rights of Persons Arrested, Detained or under Custodial Investigation Act.
The complainants said the respondents should be held liable for violation of Articles 124 and 286 of the Revised Penal Code or the laws against arbitrary detention and grave coercion, respectively.
Tamano and Castro said the respondents are also liable for administrative offenses of grave misconduct, grave abuse of authority, oppression and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.
They urged the ombudsman to suspend Malaya and the other respondents while the anti-graft body is investigating the complaint.
Tamano and Castro said that if found guilty, the accused should be dismissed from the service and charged before a proper court.
In their complaint, the environmentalists said they were seized by soldiers of the 70IB on Sept. 2, 2023 in Orion town.
Tamano and Castro said the military held them for 17 days without charges. They alleged that they were tortured and interrogated without the assistance of a counsel.
The complainants said the torture and interrogation stopped only after they agreed to execute an affidavit stating that they were not arrested or kidnapped.
They said the military instructed them to state in their affidavits that they were rebels who surrendered voluntarily.
But in a public press conference, Tamano and Castro retracted their statements and claimed they were coerced by the military.
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