Kin, rights group, fear serious risks on captured Cordillera rebel leader’s health, welfare
Art Dumlao — October 25, 2024
Kin, rights group, fear serious risks on captured Cordillera rebel leader’s health, welfare
BAGUIO CITY (October 24, 2024) – The family of captured Cordillera rebel leader Simon F. Naogsan Sr. fear serious risks on the latter’s health and welfare inside the jail.
Even human rights group Karapatan claim his closest kin had not been allowed to see him at the Laoag City police station where he was kept since he was captured in Bacarra town last Monday.
Karapatan said, Naogsan’s family fears for his health and welfare since he suffers from uncontrolled hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and osteoarthritis. “As an elderly individual facing several serious health issues, Naogsan should have been afforded his rights under International Humanitarian Law.”
Naogsan Sr., 72, was arrested in a raid by joint military and policemen
at the house he was staying in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte.
Karapatan said Naogsan Sr. is a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and admitted he is the spokesperson of the NDF-affiliate Cordillera Peoples Democratic Front (CPDF).
Communist Party of the Philippines information officer Marco Valbuena in a statement on Wednesday vouched that Naogsan Sr. who was “on furlough to seek medical attention” when caught in Bacarra town, is an NDF consultant and must be accorded “his right to independent counsel, as well as to a doctor of his choice.”
According to Naogsan Sr.’s family, food and medicines for him have not been allowed entry at his detention cell, while even members of the human rights group Ilocos Human Rights Alliance (IHRA) have reportedly been barred entry into the captured rebel leader’s detention to talk to him and province paralegal assistance.
Karapatan denounced the ill-treatment being show Naogsan Sr., his family and IHRA.
Meanwhile, veteran non-government development worker Lenville Salvador, Karapatan said, received a subpoena on October 17, 2024 from the Department of Justice asking him to answer charges for alleged violation of the terrorist financing law.
Salvador, also a detainee during Martial Law as a student activist, according to Karapatan, has long served as a development worker in the Ilocos region until his retirement in 2023.
He was the founding chairman of the board of the non-government Ilocos Center for Research, Empowerment and Development (ICREd) and was also part of the Katinnulong Daguiti Umili iti Amianan (KADUAMI-Northern Luzon).
He survived an assassination attempt in 2006 and was reportedly placed under surveillance by military and police during the COVID pandemic.
Karapatan further said that Salvador was being accused of terrorist financing with his fellow non-government development worker Petronila Guzman, who has been with KADUAMI since 1994 until her retirement in 2022 as a senior member of the organization’s management committee. She also sits on KADUAMI’s board of trustees.
