Warden assures jailed ex-priest ‘rebel’ from Cebu is treated well

TAGBILARAN CITY — The warden of the Bohol District Jail in Tagbilaran City has assured the public that the captured former priest from Cebu, who has been accused of still maintaining links to the communist insurgency, is being provided with fair treatment, and is accessible to all who may pay him a visit.

Warden Felipe Montejo, in a text message to The FREEMAN, said that 76-year-old Rustico Tan, who was arrested by the military and the police in Santander town of Cebu the other week, is in good condition while in detention, as he also belied reports that the former priest was abducted.

Following Tan's arrest, the suspected rebel leader became unreachable by family and friends for a week, sparking speculations that he was shipped out of Cebu.

On November 16, Montejo disclosed to the local media in Bohol that Tan has been detained in a jail facility in Tagbilaran City since November 13. However, considered a highrisk prisoner, Tan is kept out of other inmates, occupying an isolated cell, he said.

Montejo told The Freeman that Tan appears to be healthy, noting the old man has not received a visitor since his detention in Bohol.

NPA LINK?

Meanwhile, a high-ranking official of the Armed Forces of the Philippines reiterated the military's earlier pronouncement that Tan remains an active pillar in the communist insurgency movement in the country.

The AFP official, who asked not to be named due to the sensitive nature of his work, said Tan is the alleged vice commanding officer of the Regional Operations Command, Komiteng Rehiyon-Negros (VCO, ROC, KR-N) of the New People's Army operating in Negros Island.

Tan's arrest was a joint effort of the Cebu Police Provincial Office's Provincial Intelligence Branch and the AFP, on the strength of 14 arrest warrants against him for murder, attempted murder, and frustrated murder issued by the courts in Cebu, Bohol, and Negros Oriental.

"Matagal na siyang hinahanap. The long arm of the law finally caught him," the official told The FREEMAN.

The AFP official's statement came after Karapatan, a human rights advocate group, accused the military and the police of abducting Tan and two of his farm workers, identified as Lopito Paquigbao and Eddie Cullamat.

In a statement, Karapatan claimed Tan is a local leader of President Duterte's Kilusang Pagbabago, a grassroots movement initiated by Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr.

Incidentally, the Bohol-born Evasco, 73, is also former priest and an ex-rebel who has been working for Duterte while the latter was city mayor of Davao.

Karapatan also claimed that Tan was a negotiator for peace talks forged between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front Party during President Cory Aquino's administration. "Yet, he (Tan) remains a target of political persecution and (trumped-up) charges by the US-Duterte Regime," it said in the statement released by its deputy secretary general, Jigs Clamor.

But the AFP source said that Karapatan's meddling into Tan's case is an affirmation of the former priest's involvement in the NPA. "The role of Karapatan is that they are the shield of the NPA," the military official said. "They come to the rescue of every arrested communist terrorist and facilitate the provision of legal defense."

The source also said Tan, whom he described as "canny," fled to Surigao del Sur in 2013 "and operated there."

A veteran journalist in Bohol, Fred C. Amora, remembered Tan as the head of the communist insurgency for Central Visayas. In an interview with The FREEMAN, Amora recalled that Tan was often mentioned in news reports during the heydays of NPA's activities in Bohol from the late 1980s to the 1990s.

After more than two bloody decades, Bohol in 2010 was declared insurgency-free by the AFP. Since then, the province remains free of NPA's clout due to the province's Purok Power Movement, a comprehensive grassroots-focused development program implemented by the provincial government, the military, the police, and several national government agencies.

Newly installed AFP Chief of Staff General Rey Leonardo Guerrero, in a visit to the Central Command headquarters in Cebu City last week, ordered his men to solve the insurgency problem in the Visayas. While commending his soldiers for Tan's arrest, he admitted that the NPA remains a threat to the region.