NPA leader’s habeas corpus bid junked

Invalidity of detention cured - RTC 

CEBU, Philippines - The suspected high-ranking official of the New People's Army who was taken into police custody in Cebu City last month on arrest warrant for double and frustrated murder charges will remain in jail.

This after the Regional Trial Court Branch 17 junked the petition for habeas corpus filed by the camp of Amelia "Amy" Pond to question her detention.

Pond argued that she is not Adelfa Toledo, who was the subject of the warrant of arrest issued by the trial in Compostela Valley. But authorities insisted that Pond is Adelfa Toledo based on the identification cards recovered from her.

Her group is allegedly behind the deaths of barangay councilors Florencio Guay and Roberto Kapangpangan of Ngan, Compostela Valley on Aug. 7, 2000.

In dismissing the petition for habeas corpus, RTC Branch 17 Judge Marivic Trabajo-Daray explained that the arrest was valid since the trial court in Compostela Valley amended the warrant and included Pond as one of the accused, thus, mooted the issue about her detention.

She said there was no more need for the court to continue with the habeas corpus proceeding.

"The invalidity of the detention had been cured by the issuance of a new warrant now mentioning the name of Amelia Pond," said Daray in her 11-page order.

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 prisoners should be released from custody.

The hearing on the petition was postponed twice due to the failure of the Office of the Solicitor General to appear to represent the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

On August 19, CIDG-7 agents arrested Pond, alleging that she was Adelfa Toledo, who was the subject of the arrest warrant.

Agents of the CIDG-7 intercepted her when she was about to leave the venue of an activity of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City.

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.

The 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. (FREEMAN)