We firmly denounce the Marcos regime and its police officers for falsely claiming last Sunday that an elderly man they arrested on December 7 in Olongapo City is Prudencio Calubid, a former commander of the New People’s Army, who was abducted by military agents close to twenty years ago. We condemn the arrest of the unidentified elderly who is being misrepresented by the police as Calubid.

Calubid, in fact, was abducted and disappeared by military agents in 2006. He was taken along with his wife, Celina Palma, Ariel Beloy, Antonio Lacno and his niece Gloria Soco. Their vehicle was blocked on an isolated stretch of highway in Sipocot, Camarines Sur as they were travelling south. A witness saw how they were handcuffed, blindfolded and forced into separate vehicles.

The Philippine National Polices’ (PNP) highly publicized false report is a blatant lie. It is clearly motivated by the ₱7.8 million bounty money placed on Calubid’s head by the military and police. The fabrication is also part of the coordinated PR offensive of the Marcos regime to desperately conjure the image of having completely defeated the people’s revolutionary armed resistance.

The PNP’s claim also seeks to whitewash the crimes of the Armed Forces of the Philippines over the abduction and enforced disappearance of Calubid and the Sipocot 5. The false claim is a grave insult and mockery of the families’ nearly two-decade-long quest for justice and their struggle to find their disappeared loved ones.