The Army’s 3rd Infantry Division yesterday justified the arrest of two suspected leaders of the New People’s Army in Mandaue City, Cebu, and said that it was done in accordance with the rule of law.

Maj. Enrico Gil Ileto, 3ID spokesman, said Calixto Vistal and his wife, Jimmylisa Badayos, were arrested by the Philippine National Police and military, by virtue of an arrest warrant issued by Dumaguete Judge Roderick Maxino, for the crime of murder.

Vistal, with the aliases of Cocoy, Fred and Isom, as alleged by the military as former commander of a major NPA unit in southern Negros, while Badayos formerly served as head of a regional party technical department.

The human rights group Karapatan condemned what it described as the illegal arrest of Vistal, 38, and Badayos, 36, a member of the Sons and Daughters of Desaparecidos.

The group claimed that the two were accosted by members of the AFP Military Intelligence Group and PNP intelligence operatives at the gates of the Euro Forest Products Industries Inc in Mandaue, and forced to board a waiting vehicle.

It also claimed that they were manhandled and a gun was planted in the bag of Badayos. It said that on Sept. 30 it has documented 401 political prisoners in detention facilities all over the country, with Vistal and Badayos among the latest victims of abduction and illegal detention.

Military records, however, show that Vistal was involved in several NPA operations in Bohol and Leyte, aside from Negros. He had also participated in an encounter with Army’s Special Forces trooper in Bohol, where 2Lt. Socrates Que and some of his men were killed, the records also showed.* GPB

back to top