Reports from correspondents:
The 5th ID�s abuses in Isabela

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

In statements issued on December 10, 2001, CPP-NPA-NDF Northeastern Luzon spokesperson Ka Salvador del Pueblo and NPA Benito Tesorio Command (BTC) spokesperson Ka Delio Baladon have belied the falsehoods uttered by Brig. Gen. Rodolfo Alvarado of the 5th ID.

Alvarado has been trying to cover up human rights abuses committed against the people by 5th ID troops during division operations in Hacienda Sta.Isabel in Ilagan; Vintar, Dolores and San Mariano in Quirino; Germitan, Dibulod, Namnama and nearby villages in Jones; and in Madadammian, Diasan, Villa Campo, Narra and adjacent villages in Echague town.

Some of the soldiers� abuses on record that are being covered up by Alvarado involve the prohibition of peasants from going to their farms, forcing peasants to serve as guides, mauling of youth and elderly folk, setting up of camps in schools and the houses of the masses and the conduct of nightly drinking and gambling sprees. There have also been a number of sexual harassment cases committed against women.

Alvarado spun tales during his radio interviews. He persistently denied violations of human rights in Ilagan and Quirino and abuses by 5th ID troopers led by Captain Marana, Lieutenant Betinol and Lieutenant Gay against residents of Villa Bello, Jones. Alvarado claimed that the BTC�s exposés on public disturbances and violations perpetrated by the 502nd Brigade were baseless. This, despite the incontrovertible evidence accompanying cases filed by farmers from Barangay Villa Bello and members of a fact-finding mission conducted in the area in November.

Comrade Baladon added that combat operations by some 200 troops of the AFP 502nd Brigade continued even during the Macapagal-Arroyo regime�s declared ceasefire from December 10, 2001 to January 6, 2002. The operations were conducted in the villages of Echague and Jones.

Alvarado�s lies are all meant to deceive the people. Like military operations conducted in other provinces in the country, the enemy�s brutality is being covered up through civil-military operations such as road-building; the setting up of pergolas and toilets; and the conduct of circumcisions and mass weddings. The enemy uses such means to portray themselves as wellmeaning, even as they abuse the people.

Comrade Baladon stated that "it is no coincidence that while some military troops construct toilets in Barangay Diasan, other troops are dragging and tying up farmers in Barangay Villa Bello!"

January 2002
English Edition

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