Abducted Couple Transferred to Leyte

Published on March 31, 2008

A couple abducted by soldiers and alleged as communist leaders in Leyte province have been transferred to the Leyte Provincial Jail after being surfaced around 3 p.m., March 24 in the PNP’s Camp Vicente Lim in Calamba City, Laguna.

BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 8, March 16-29, 2008

After four days of disappearance, Jaime Doria Soldedad, 58, and Clarita Luego-Soledad, 50, were surfaced to their family around 3 p.m. yesterday, March 24. The couple, who were alleged by the Army as leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in Leyte province, were abducted by government intelligence agents on March 20 in Bacoor, Cavite.

They were transferred to the Leyte Provincial Jail in Palo town today, March 25.

Upon their transfer, Luego-Soledad was subsequently released as the police found out she had no case in the province.

However, Jaime Soledad remains in jail as he is being implicated in the multiple murder case filed against CPP and New People’s Army (NPA) leaders for the alleged purge of hundreds of civilians believed to be military intelligence agents who penetrated the ranks of the CPP-NPA in the 1980s. In August 2006, Army Chief Hermogenes Esperon presented to the media an alleged mass grave in the town of Inopacan, Leyte.

He is facing multiple murder charges in relation to the Inopacan “mass grave.”

The couple was presented to the media on March 22. Newspaper reports said the couple was in the custody of Region IV police intelligence Chief Supt. Ricardo Ilagan Padilla in Camp Vicente Lim in Calamba City, Laguna. However, when the family and some members of Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of Peoples’ Rights) searched for the couple on March 23, police officials denied they had the couple in their custody.

Survivor

Luego-Soledad’s cousin, Vilma Madrazo, reported the incident to Karapatan on March 22. Madrazo said she was abducted together with the couple but was immediately released when their abductors realized that her name was not in the list of those charged in connection to the Inopacan case.

In an interview, Madrazo said she was about to meet the couple in front of the 7-11 convenience store along Daang Hari in Molino 3 subdivision, Bacoor, Cavite at 4:30 p.m. on March 20, when around 10 unidentified men accosted them and hurled them separately inside a silver Adventure-type van, a white car, and another brown vehicle.

Madrazo said she was released somewhere in Alabang, Muntinlupa City after a ride lasting several hours.

Bayan Muna (People First) Rep. Satur Ocampo and Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) leader Randall Echanis have been arrested in separate occasions for the same case. Ocampo was released after the Supreme Court granted him bail while Echanis is still detained in the provincial jail in Palo, Leyte. (Bulatlat.com)