Army Surfaces Missing Church Worker, Slaps Him With ‘False Charges’

Dennis Rodinas. (Photo from Bulatlat.com)

MANILA, Philippines (Bulatlat / July 2, 2009) — Church worker Dennis Rodinas, who was earlier reported missing by his family, has been found, but the military has filed charges against him in a Tangub City court – charges that his wife said were fabricated.

Rodinas, 35, a lay worker and member of the Protestant church United Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP), was arrested by a police team in Tangub City early morning on Monday. His wife, Deana Febra, said Rodinas could not be found since Monday night.

The Promotion of Church People’s Response, group of religious and lay workers that is monitoring cases of human-rights violations against members of the clergy, had earlier said Rodinas had not been accounted for as late as Wednesday night.

In a phone interview with Bulatlat, Febra said her husband was manhandled by his captors and was forced to answer questions even as he invoked his right to remain silent.

Febra said that on Tuesday, around 3 p.m., she saw her husband on board a pick-up truck with license plates RSA 717 parked in front of the Regional Trial Court in Tangub City.

Febra and members of the quick reaction team organized by the UCCP were then at the Philippine National Police (PNP) station looking for Rodinas. The PNP station and the RTC were adjacent.

“I asserted my right to see him,” Febra told Bulatlat. She said soldiers of the 55th Infantry Battalion (IB) were all over the place. She was able to talk to her husband briefly.

Febra said Lt. Col Raymundo Acorda and Police Inspector Alwin Baclao of the Provincial Regional Mobile Unit (PRMU) were the ones who brought her husband to the RTC. At that time, Febra said the charges filed against her husband were not clear.

Rodinas was sent back to the 55th IB headquarters in Langub, Calamba town in Misamis Occidental. “They told me my husband was under military custody,” Febra said.

The next day, Rodinas was brought to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Tangub City. Febra later learned that her husband was being charged with illegal possession of explosives.

From the BJMP in Tangub, Rodinas was transferred to BJMP in Ozamiz City. But the officer in charge in Ozamiz City refused to accept Rodinas due to the absence of papers from BJMP Tangub. Later that day, Rodinas was brought back to BJMP in Tangub City.

“The military considers him a high-risk detainee,” Febra said, explaining the attempt to transfer Rodinas to Ozamiz City.

Violations

Febra decried the violations on the rights of her husband.

“It was a warrantless arrest,” she said. Rodinas was arrested at a checkpoint in Villaba, Tangub City, at around 6 a.m. on Monday.

“The military turned him over to the PNP only after more than 36 hours,” Febra pointed out.

“He was mentally tortured. He was deprived of sleep. Even as he asserted his right to remain silent, he was forced by his handlers to answer questions. He was also beaten by military personnel,” Febra said.

False Accusations

The 55th IB claimed that Rodinas is a leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Western Mindanao.

In a report by The Mindanao Examiner, Lt. Steffani Cacho, a regional army spokeswoman, said Rodinas was captured during a combat operation launched by the Army’s 55th IB and the 10th Regional Mobile Group of the Philippine National Police.

Cacho said they recovered components for explosives, a laptop, five units of cellular phones, a Palmtop and subversive documents from Rodinas. Cacho claimed Rodinas was also behind several murders in the province.

Febra denied the accusations against her husband. “It’s not true. The explosive compound allegedly found was planted.”

A certification from UCCP’s Bishop Constante Claro of the Southern Mindanao Jurisdiction states that Rodinas, also a son of a UCCP pastor, was involved in the program on ecology and environment protection of the different churches in Mindanao from April 1998 to May 2001.

Febra said Rodinas continues to serve as a staff of the said program under the National Churches of Christ in the Philippines (NCCP).

Febra called on the authorities to release her husband. “He is innocent,” she said. (Ronalyn Olea / Bulatlat.com)

UCCP Pastor Berlin Guerrero Is Freed

Pastor Berlin Guerrero. (Prebysterian News Service Photo)

Pastor Berlin Guerrero, who has been in custody in the Philippines, was released on September 10, 2008.

The United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) thanks their partners in mission, including The United Church of Canada, who have supported the campaign for Guerrero's release.

The UCCP said: "We are happy to inform you that Pastor Berlin Guerrero was released…after the Court of Appeals Justice granted a temporary restraining order barring the Cavite Regional Court Branch 19 from proceeding with the hearings on the murder case and directed the government lawyers to submit more evidence to justify the trial of Pastor Berlin Guerrero."

"We thank you for your support in various ways and for your continuous prayers for the dismissal of the case. The decision brought an eruption of applause, after which many, both inside the courtroom and keeping vigil outside of the Court of Appeals, cried with tears of happiness. "Today is a story that we must tell again and again."

"This is a moment of great inspiration to be remembered," shared misty-eyed Father Rex Reyes, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines.

Inside the courtroom Pastor Berlin Guerrero tightly embraced his wife, Mylene, and his three teenage children. The parents and siblings of Pastor Berlin also huddled close to celebrate the moment.

Freed Filipino Pastor Fears For His Life: AHRC

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that a pastor who was released several days after he was abducted and tortured in captivity now fears for his life. Over a month after the incident took place in May 6, there has not been an adequate investigation or any effort by the authorities to identify the perpetrators. Furthermore, no security arrangements have been afforded to him.

CASE DETAILS: (According to information received from the Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights (Karapatan))

On 6 May 2008, Pastor Rodel Canja was to attend the annual meeting of the Northeast Southern Tagalog Conference of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in Jala-jala town in the province of Rizal. He traveled with his companion, Maruja Satanes, acting secretary of the UCCP-JIMELY. The two arrived at the UCCP Parish in Pililia at around 9am where it was arranged that they would wait for other delegates to come before proceeding to the venue of their conference.

While they were waiting Pastor Canja went outside to look for a store so that he could add value into the credit of his prepaid mobile phone. As he was walking an unknown man, presumed to be in his forties, suddenly alighted from a closed van and put his arm around him. The pastor had asked him who he was, but instead of receiving an explanation he was told not to react and to get inside the van. When the van was opened, Pastor Canja saw another man pointing a gun at him. Frightened and shocked, he boarded the vehicle.

While inside the van Pastor Canja saw that there were two other men, including the driver. Shortly afterwards he lost consciousness when a handkerchief laced with unknown chemicals was placed over his nose.

When Pastor Canja regained consciousness he found himself in a room which he described as brightly lit. The two men from the van were present. When he asked them what they wanted from him one of his captors told him they would not harm him. However, he was told to cooperate with them and to answer their questions.

As Pastor Canja was lying on the cement floor, his captors have repeatedly asked him details about Pastor Berlin Guererro, also a UCCP pastor who was abducted in 27 May 2007 in Binan, Laguna. Pastor Guererro is currently detained in the Provincial Jail in Trece Martirez, Cavite. Both Pastor Canja and Pastor Guerrero were roommates and classmates during their time at a seminary.

The captors were raising their voices as they were questioning Pastor Canja insisting that he tell them everything he knows of Pastor Guerrero's identity and his activities, and that he should everything confess to them. Pastor Canja was kept in the same room for four days and three nights before being released.

On the first day, they deprived him of food and questioned him continuously about Pastor Guererro.

On his second day of his captivity, although they gave him food he was too frightened to eat anything as the guards watching him kept tapping his pistol and waving it in his direction while walking around the room. On the third day, they took his mobile phone and wallet, and afterwards, threatened him that something may happen to his sisters, especially now that they were already in possession of their identification cards (IDs).

Pastor Canja was given a new pair of denim shorts to replace his now dirty pants, and was told again that he should tell them everything he knows about Pastor Guererro. They also claimed that he was a member of the "P", referring to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). At that point he was told that it was his last chance to confess. Suddenly, one of the men approached him and grabbed him by the hair and forced his gun inside Pastor Canja's mouth forcing him to reply: "Oo o Hindi!?" ("Yes or No?!"). His captor fired his gun, and it was only when he recovered from his shock that he realized the weapon had been pointed outside the house.

On the fourth, May 9, he awoke to find four men inside the room. One of them ordered him to get dressed and warned him not to raise any attention to himself otherwise something bad might happen to him. They had Pastor Canja blindfolded before he was led outside towards the van which they all boarded. During the long trip, he overhead the loud conversations of his captors, some of whom wanted to kill him instead of letting him go. It was already dark when Pastor Canja was released in a place which was not familiar to him.

Not knowing where he was, Pastor Canja started walking in the direction of some houses. Afterwards, he saw an ambulant vendor (one who walks from place to place another to sell), from whom he asked directions. He was told that the road lead to the town of Cogeo, Antipolo. Unsure of the time, he inquired from a bystander what time the jeepneys (public transport), started running and was told 6 am.

Pastor Canja tried to locate someone he knew but decided to sleep, sitting down in front of a closed grocery store. When he awoke at dawn and saw a jeepney that was about to depart and although he had no money to pay for fare he was fortunate enough that he know one of the passengers. This person later accompanied him to make sure he got home safely.

Pastor Canja now fears for his life and the lives of his family members after the interrogation and mental torture he suffered.

SUGGESTED ACTION:Please write letters to the authorities below requesting for their appropriate action in providing necessary protection the victim and his family requires. They must also commence a thorough investigation into his abduction and torture while in captivity to have those responsible identified and held to account.

The AHRC has also written separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on Question of Torture requesting their immediate intervention into this case.

Clergy, Abducted And Tortured In Philippines

QUEZON CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / May 27, 2008) – A Catholic clergy had been abducted by gunmen and tortured into linking a detained pastor to the underground communist movement, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said Tuesday.

It said Pastor Rodel Canja, of the Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR), was forcibly taken at gunpoint earlier this month in southern Luzon and was freed after being tortured for four days.

The gunmen, believed to be soldiers or policemen, also threatened to kill Canja’s family if he reports his ordeal to anybody.

PCPR Secretary General Amie Dural said Canja was seized while was on his way to the annual conference of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.

“One man casually invited him to ride in the van and warned him not to ask any question. Inside the van, another man pointed a gun at him while the man who invited him to ride in the van placed a handkerchief in his nose that left him unconscious,” Dural told the CBCP.

Dural said when the pastor regained his consciousness, the men began torturing and interrogating him about UCCP Pastor Berlin Guerrero, now detained at a police base in Imus town in Cavite province.

Guerrero was abducted May 27 last year by gunmen who accused him of being a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines and since then has been detained without charges.

“For four days, two to of the four men alternately interrogated Pastor Canja about Pastor Berlin and two other UCCP ministers. While clicking their guns, the men repeatedly asked Pastor Canja to confirm that Pastor Berlin was a member of the “P”, a code referring to CPP,” Dural said.

Dural said one of the abductors fired his gun while interrogating the clergy. Canja’s wallet and money were also confiscated. “And when they saw the pictures of his two siblings, they threatened the pastor they will kill his siblings if he would ever talk about his experience,” Dural said, adding, Canja is now suffering from psychological trauma brought about by his ordeal.

“With the hundreds of cases of abductions and extra-judicial killings in the country, the Armed Forces of the Philippines mastered the scheme of identifying legitimate people's organizations as 'front' of the CPP. The Armed Forces of the Philippines insists on linking activist citizens to the CPP and its armed group to justify attacks on their lives and liberty,” Dural said.

Since President Gloria Arroyo took power in 2001, at least 27 church people, including Bishop Alberto Ramento, of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, had been killed. Hundreds of political activists, accused of being supporters of the CPP, were also abducted and killed by suspected government soldiers. (With reports from the CBCP)

Press Statement Of Abducted UCCP Pastor Berlin V. Guerrero

What does it take a government to have the nerve to abduct, torture, and terrorize my family on the basis of an old inciting to sedition case and a baseless murder charge?

Far more absurd is the accusation that I am the Secretary of the CPP Provincial committee in Cavite.

This lie that they tried to extract from me by means of physical, mental and psychological torture and projecting me in public as a "hand-gun and grenade carrying rebel."

I am a Pastor of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) and never participated in any killings, illegal or unlawful activities, or any common crime.

My family and I have just taken a tricycle from the local church which I have served for two consecutive years (June 2006-2007) where we just celebrated UCCP's and the local church's 59th and 72nd anniversaries respectively (On May 27, at around 5:30 pm, a white van cut the tricycle's path and military-looking men quickly alighted to grab me; despite my plea that they show me the warrant they said they had. I was man-handled and forcefully shoved inside the van, put a handcuff on my hands behind me, covered my head with a cloth and packing tape, was beaten, punched and kicked repeatedly.

They brought me to a place I didn't know. Here, still handcuffed, men would take turn interrogating and beating my head with their fists and blunt objects. (Like a 1,000 ml mineral bottle and other objects). All throughout, layers of plastic bags covered my head. My torturers would tighten the bag until I could no longer breathe. I passed out two times and urinated in my pants.

They made me shake my head for about an hour and beat me whenever I stopped they said they would do these things to my family if I did not cooperate. I was forced to give names and addresses of my whole family, officers of church and conferences, name of my administrator at Union Theological Seminary where I am studying theology, leaders of progressive labour and peasant organizations in Southern Tagalog.

They opened my computer by forcing me to give the password, got my e-mail password. They erased all of my church, school and personal files and replace it with documents that belong to the so-called underground left.

After about twelve hours, they put me back on the van still handcuffed and blindfolded. They threatened to kill me, burn me or bury me. They continued to beat me and make new names for me. They got my SIM card.

They called me Pastor-Impostor. And lectured me on the "evils" of communism and how the church, legal people's organizations are "used" to create trouble by criticizing the government.

When the van stopped, it took an hour before they led me down, made me sit down and lie down. After an hour, they removed my blindfold. Here I learned I was in Imus, Cavite specifically at Camp Pantaleon Garcia, Cavite Provincial Police Office (PPO).

Later on in the afternoon, that was the only time I saw the warrants of arrest and to what unit of the PNP I was turned over to by my abductors.

Now that I have the time to collect my thoughts and view my situation inside what police offices "call a subhuman" cell, let me make a preliminary analysis of my unfinished ordeal.

(1) The unit which abducted me is an organized AFP unit which operates covertly or below the law. It is composed of elements coming from different units of AFP's Intelligence Community. As a counter-insurgency unit, it uses ex-NPAs. They are lawless enforcers.

(2) Making use of court cases which involves suspected personalities of the left, no matter how weak, these cases may be served and used to make the arrest legitimate. In my case, I am implicated in a Murder Case in 1990. Case files show that I do not have a direct or indirect link to the crime.

(3) To bring me to the court by means of the arrest warrants issecondary. Their primary objective is to extract information from meby means of torture.

(4) It is also meant to terrorize my family, my relatives, friends, church members and practically everyone I know and who know me. It creates a thinking that this repeated attack on a person's right, which may end in incarceration or death, can happen to anybody.

I am outraged by their branding me as a "Pastor-Impostor" because it is an affront to the sacred office I have sworn to serve God Almighty who knows every heart and mind.

Finally, I hold the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo government responsible for the abduction and torture I have suffered and the subhuman captivity I am forced to accept. The GMA Administration should listen to the repeated cries of the people to stop violation of human rights and the political killings.

They may have put in jail, but my spirit is free and firm because God is with us always.

(SGD.) PASTOR BERLIN V. GUERRERO

United Church of Christ in the Philippines

Inside the Camp Pantaleon Garcia
Cavite Provincial Police Office
Imus, Cavite



Note: Please find related stories and articles about Pastor Berlin Guererro (Ed.)

AFP At Navy, Hugas Kamay Sa Torture Sa Dinukot Na Pastor!

MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / 03 Jun) – Katulad ng inaasahan, mariing itinanggi ng Philippine Navy na pinahirapan at binugbog ng intelligence agents nito ang isang pastor ng United Church of Christ of the Philippines na si Berlin Guerrero na pinagbintangan miyembro ng rebeldeng New People’s Army.

Ang mouthpiece ng Armed Forces na si Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro ang mismong nagsabi na base sa inisyal na resulta ng pagsisiyasat ng Navy sa nasabing alegasyon ay hindi umano ginalaw ng mga sundalo ang pastor makaraang arestuhin ito sa bayan ng Binan sa lalawigan ng Laguna.

Ngunit mismong ang Philippine National Police ang nagsabing walang kinalaman ang ahensya sa alegsasyon ng pagpapahirap sa alagad ng Simbahan.

"The Philippine Navy denied subjecting Pastor Guererro to torture," ani Bacarro. Subalit, tiniyak ng opisyal na handa ang AFP na harapin ang anumang alegasyon ng paglabag sa karapatang pantao.

Inamin rin ng pastor na siya’y pinahirapan at pilit na pinaamin na isang lider ng NPA at isinabit rin ng mga awtoridad ito sa pamamaslang.

"If it is found out that there is torture committed or there is a breach committed by members of the Philippine Navy, this will be subject to sanction, administratively and criminally," dagdag ni Bacarro.

Naunang sinabi ng pamilya ng pastor na ito'y dinukot ng mga sundalo. Agad naman ipinasa ng Navy sa pulisya ang pastor matapos na mag-ingay ang UCCP at mga relihiyosong grupo sa ibang bansa ukol sa pagdukot sa biktima. (Juley Reyes)