AFP presents 43 health workers before Court of Appeals

Forty-three health workers accused of being communist rebels were presented before the Court of Appeals after the Supreme Court ordered the Philippine military to do so. Each worker was handcuffed to a soldier during their court appearance, a GMA Flash Report said. Present at the habeas corpus hearing of the CA’s First Division were the workers’ head legal counsel, Romeo Capulong, Commission on Human Rights chair Leila de Lima, Senator Pilar Juliana “Pia" Cayetano, and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes.
The Supreme Court had ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to produce the workers in court last Friday, but the military was unable to follow the directive owing to security reasons. The workers came from Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal, where they had been detained since their arrest last February 6 at the Morong, Rizal farmhouse of doctor Melecia Velmonte, chair the Community Medicine Development Foundation (Commed) and an infectious disease specialist. The workers were allegedly conducting a bomb-making training. Relatives and non-government organizations associated with the workers have repeatedly denied the arrested men and women were members of the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Part of the Philippines (CPP). They also slammed the military for what it said was the illegal arrest and torture of the workers. The AFP, for its part, denied the arrest was illegal and that the workers were tortured or physically abused. [See: ‘Allegations of sexual abuse meant to discredit military’] While the hearing was ongoing, the son of one of the detainees called for the release of his father, Alex Montes, a 60-year-old torture who was allegedly tortured and electrocuted by the soldiers. “Gusto namin matanggal si Papa and all the rest kasi unfair sa kanila (We want Papa and all the released because their detention is unfair)," CJ Montes said in an interview on dzBB radio. - GMANews.TV