Read in: Waray

A fugitive who escaped abuse at the hands of the Philippine National Police (PNP) is now being falsely presented as a leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Samar, the NPA-Eastern Visayas (NPA-EV) today reported.

The PNP said they arrested Rowel Mabahin, 21, in Sampaloc, Manila last June 18 after he escaped from the police headquarters in Calbiga town more than two years before. They alleged that Mabahin was a platoon leader for the NPA in Eastern Samar who was also a member of the special operations group.

The Efren Martires Command of the NPA-EV belied this, citing a previous report from the local unit of the NPA saying that Mabahin was not an NPA leader but was a fugitive who escaped from the police after he and his underage brother with whom he was imprisoned suffered torture and verbal abuse at the hands of the police. The two were accused of robbery and causing physical injury.

In their 2019 report, the Arnulfo Ortiz Command of the NPA-Western Samar said that a certain SPO1 Eduardo T. Burca threatened to summarily execute the brothers after showing them a video of the NPA ambush in Motiong town in the same province. Prior to this, the Calbiga police had tortured the minor Mabahin by forcing water mixed with hot pepper down his throat while holding him down. The brothers thus had reason to be afraid of the police officer’s threat.

Immediately after fleeing the police station, the brothers voluntarily surrendered to the NPA, bringing with them several high-powered rifles and hundreds of ammunition. According to the NPA-EV, they committed common crimes due to poverty, hunger, and disenfranchisement. But they expressed readiness to face the revolutionary justice system because they know they will be given the opportunity to renew their lives, unlike what they experienced in the hands of the PNP.

The NPA-EV condemned the PNP for openly fabricating lies to defame the revolutionary movement.#