On August 14, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant Renante Gamara and construction workers Diony Borre and Raul Razo walked free after several years of detention. This followed their acquittal along with two others—NDFP consultant Tirso Alcantara and peasant organizer Dionisio Almonte—in kidnapping and related murder and frustrated murder cases. While the three gained release, Almonte remains captive at New Bilibid Prisons, and Alcantara is not detained.
The five were charged with kidnapping, murder, and frustrated murder of a soldier and a “former rebel” in Mauban, Quezon, that occurred in May 2007. Up to 37 names and aliases were implicated and identified in the arrest warrant related to the case.
Gamara was arrested in March 2012 but was released on bail in 2016 to participate as a peace negotiations consultant between the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines. When the Duterte regime’s intransigence and cruelty pushed the negotiations to fail, he was re-arrested in March 2019. Arresting state forces claimed to have recovered weapons and explosives from him.
Borre was arrested in 2014. The state reportedly targeted him based merely on reports that he is the son-in-law of deceased Communist Party of the Philippines spokesperson Gregorio Rosal (Ka Roger). Meanwhile, Almonte was arrested in January 2014 while being treated for his herniated (slipped) disc and spinal condition.
All the victims have long asserted that they never visited or even set foot in Mauban, Quezon, where the alleged incidents they are accused of, occurred.
Human rights groups considered the long years of detention of political prisoners a grave injustice. Karapatan condemned state forces and government agencies for arbitrarily adding to arrest warrants names of people they target to keep them imprisoned for long.
They claim that the aliases included in the arrest warrants are the people they are arresting. The group also said that the case was based on lies reported by a “rebel returnee” named Erwin Rosales, whom state forces previously used in other fabricated cases.
“We are glad that the court saw through the lies and inconsistencies in the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said. She thanked the defense lawyers for feretting out the truth and securing the prisoners’ successful release. “Free all political prisoners!” Palabay called.
