Woman ‘mistaken’ as rebel leader will remain under CIDG-7 custody

CEBU, Philippines - The alleged high-ranking official of the New People’s Army who was arrested last Friday in Cebu City for double and frustrated murder charges will remain under police custody.

This was after the Regional Trial Court Branch 7 in Cebu City reset the schedule for the hearing on the petition for “habeas corpus” filed by Sister Francis Añover, national coordinator of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, on behalf of detained Amelia “Amy” Pond.

Habeas corpus is a recourse wherein a detainee can seek relief from unlawful detention, so he can be brought before the court, which will determine if there was lawful detention and whether or not the prisoner should be released from police custody.

Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-7 agents arrested Pond, alleging that she was Adelfa Toledo, who was the subject of the arrest warrant.

During the supposed hearing on the petition yesterday, Pond’s lawyer Magdalena Lepiten questioned the representation of lawyer Inocencio de la Cerna, who acted as counsel for CIDG-7 Chief Marlon Tayaba.

Agreeing to the petitioner’s contention, RTC Branch 7 Acting Presiding Judge Marivic Trabajo-Laray noted that only the Office of the Solicitor General has the authority to appear on behalf of a respondent in a habeas corpus proceeding.

Laray asked the parties to have the proceeding moved so the OSG could already represent Tayaba. 

Pond’s camp agreed to the postponement. “We don’t want to have a proceeding not duly represented by the OSG,” Lepiten told reporters after yesterday’s session.

De la Cerna, on the other hand, explained that he was supposedly representing Tayaba in his private capacity. But he said he assented to the court’s directive.

Last Friday afternoon, the woman was intercepted by CIDG-7 agents when she was about to leave the venue of an activity of the RMP in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City.

Authorities said the woman, whom they alleged as Toledo, is the subject of two alias warrants of arrest for double murder and frustrated murder issued by the Regional Trial Court in Compostella Valley over the deaths of barangay councilmen Florencio Guay and Roberto Kapangpangan of Ngan, Compostela Valley on August 7, 2000.

The CIDG information sheet showed that Toledo is an executive committee member of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee of the NPA and second deputy secretary and member of the Komiteng Hukom of the Davao Oriental Provincial Committee of the NPA.

But the RMP claimed that the detained woman is currently the regional coordinator for RMP-Southern Mindanao.

CIDG-7, however, clarified that Pond was not arrested for being an NPA official but for the warrant of arrest issued by the court for a criminal case.

Reportedly confiscated from Pond were several ID cards, some of which bearing the name Adelfa Toledo and the others Amelia Pond.

But the RMP members claimed that the ID cards were just planted by the CIDG-7 agents to incriminate her.

The respondent CIDG-7 will be presenting Tuesday next week its witnesses to prove that Pond and Toledo were the same. (FREEMAN)