Abducted activist ‘surrenders’ as rebel tax collector
Credit to Author: lalos| Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2019 21:54:54 +0000
DAVAO CITY—The military on Thursday announced the surrender of what officials said was a tax collector of the New People’s Army (NPA) but who, a rights group said, was actually an activist abducted by unidentified men recently.
The military said Raquel Quintano, 42, surrendered on Wednesday to an officer, Lt. Col. Esteveyn Ducusin.
Quintano was operating in the town of Mawab, Compostela Valley province as an NPA tax collector, according to 1Lt. Jhocell de Asis, spokesperson of the Army’s 71st Infantry Battalion.
De Asis said Quintano belonged to the NPA’s subregional committee 2 in Southern Mindanao.
Alias Fiona
The military spokesperson said Quintano, whom she identified only as a certain Fiona, also confessed that she was the former subsection secretary of militant farmers’ group Hugpong sa mga Mag-uuma sa Walog, Compostela (Farmers’ Alliance of Compostela Valley, or Humawac), and that her tasks included organizing people to join antigovernment demonstrations.
“Target of their extortion activities are businessmen, politicians, mining and logging [firms] and store owners wherein the collections are remitted to their higher command in the region,” De Asis said in a statement.
She said Quintano revealed her participation in several rallies here since 2014, including one during the burial of slain rebel leader Leoncio Pitao, alias Commander Parago.
Abducted
But Jay Apiag, Karapatan Southern Mindanao secretary general, said Quintano was a victim of abduction by state forces.
She was seized by unidentified men and forced into a black Toyota Vios as she was waiting for a jeepney ride in the village of Madaum in Tagum City, around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
“She is active in calling for the release of all political prisoners in the country, including her husband who is currently detained due to ludicrous charges,” Apiag said in a statement.
De Asis, the Army spokesperson, said Quintano was forced to join communist guerrillas and that she had stayed with the group for five years.
“According to her, that’s the reason why her husband is in jail. She realized [the movement] ruined her family,” De Asis said. —FRINSTON LIM