50-year-old Moro activist found in Camp Crame

MANILA, Philippines - A 50-year-old Moro activist reported abducted last month has been found in Camp Crame, reports reaching a human rights group said. With this, human rights group Karapatan dispatched a team to help Mohammad Diya Hamja, the activist who was abducted, tortured and detained eight years ago for being an alleged member of the Abu Sayyaf. Karapatan said that Hamja is being held at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group headquarters in Camp Crame. The Families of the Disappeared for Justice (Desaparecidos) on Wednesday had called on state security agents to surface Hamja who was abducted by armed men in Taguig on Nov. 28, 2008. On Nov. 28, Hamja had just left the Blue Mosque after the noontime prayer in Maharlika Village, Taguig City, when a white L-300 van with license plate XHC-238 stopped and two men wearing ski masks alighted and took Hamja at gunpoint. Hamja is a member of the Moro Christian People's Alliance (MCPA) and Victims of the Arroyo Regime for Justice or Hustisya! Hamja was one of the Basilan 73, the Moro victims who were suspected as Abu Sayyaff members and abducted in their homes in Basilan in 2000. They were later transferred to the Bicutan detention in Taguig. Hamja was one of those who were charged with 52 fabricated cases, which were later dismissed for lack of evidence. He was eventually released. Some of his companions were killed during the bloody 2005 Bicutan siege. The Nov 28 abduction spot was just right across a Special Weapons and Tactics detachment of the police. The SWAT officer reasoned that they were out when Hamja was abducted. Three nights before the abduction, Hamja's neighbors reported about three to four men armed with armalite rifles roaming in the area at past midnight. "Hamja is a Moro human rights activist, a former detainee, and he was abducted in broad daylight right in front of a police detachment. We have no other suspect here but state security agents," said Mary Guy Portajada, the newly-elected Secretary General of Desaparecidos, who, along with human rights group Karapatan joined Hamja's family in the search. Portajada added: "From one police office to another for the past four days, the police had given us the runaround in our search for Hamja. We are hoping that the media and the public could give us information that would help us to locate him. " The search team – Desaparecidos, Hustisya!, Karapatan and MCPA workers who accompanied Hamja's son Ahmad – earlier went to the Southern Police District where the police at the gate said he recognized Hamja from his picture as one of the three men who were brought to the station. Inside the station, however, the officer at the investigation division refused to answer the search team's inquiries and instead took Hamja's picture, left the room and went to the detention cells. The officer then took the search team inside the detention cells, only to see that the victim was not among those detained. The search team had gone to the offices in Camp Crame, namely at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the CIDD-Task Force Maverick, the Salaam Police Station; to Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig, namely at the Regional Police Intelligence Operation Unit, the Regional Anti-illegal Drugs-Special Operations Task Force, the Counter Intelligence Special Unit and the Joint Counter Terrorism Intelligence Fusion. "Eight years ago, Hamja had already suffered in the hands of the military and police, being abducted, tortured and detained on false charges. His family too, had endured torment," Portajada said. - GMANews.TV