By Nitz Arancon
Correspondent
INDIGENES from San Fernando, Bukidnon has accused soldiers belonging to the Army’s 8th Infantry Battalion of arbitrary arrest and detention.
In an interview, Valdes Mandagit, 27, a resident of Sitio Tibugawan, Barangay Kawayan in San Fernando town said the soldiers arrested him and his companions last June 22.
Mandagit and 10 other indigenes were planting trees for a reforestation project of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) that day.
When the soldiers accosted him and his companions in the forest, Mandagit said he told the soldiers that they were employees of DENR.
The soldiers, however, insisted that they were members of the New People’s Army.
“Ila kaming gibulad sa init sulod sa kapin tulo ka oras kay ila kami nga gipatug-an asa kuno nagtago ang among mga kaubang rebelde. Dili man kami rebelde, mga trabahante man kami sa DENR,” Mandagit said.
He added they were release after the torture but the soldiers took their lead man, Junte Sidom, to Malaybalay City Police station for detention and charged him with illegal possession of firearms and illegal possession of explosives.
“Inosente man intawon siya. Wala man siya’y armas pero nganong gi-priso man,” Mandagit asked.
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