The rebel, Eliseo Tada, was being taken to hospital for
emergency care when troops arrested him and later paraded on road in Malita
town in Davao del Sur province, said Dencio Madrigal, a spokesman for the NPA's
Valentin Palamine Regional Operations Command.
He said Tada was so sick that he needed emergency medical
care to save his life, but troops who arrested the rebel interrogated him
instead.
"Eliseo (Ka Bimbo) Tada is a very sick man who has
been ill for some time and had to have immediate medical treatment in a
hospital. NPA medics who attended to him decided he should have a more
specialized and extensive treatment, which at that particular time, could not
be provided by the guerilla front."
"For this reason, the comrades decided to brave the
odds and bring him to the nearest medical facility in order to save his
life. Unfortunately, he was
accosted by enemy patrols along the way, interrogated and brought to 39th
Infantry Battalion headquarters in Davao del Sur. During the interrogation he
must have been physically and psychologically forced to admit to certain
activities of which he had no knowledge about," Madrigal said.
He said the military accused Tada of participating in a
string of attacks against government soldiers in Sarangani province. He said
Tada was very sick and has been under the care of NPA medics and could not be
involved in any attacks against military forces.
"How could Ka Bimbo participate in the action when
he was very sick and has been on treatment by the NPA medics for some time
now? He was neither in any of the
two other tactical offensives launched by the Red fighters on Sept. 18 and 20
in Malita (town), Davao del Sur and in Malapatan (town), Sarangani,
respectively, which are within Front 71 territories," Madrigal said.
The Army's 10th Infantry Division said over the weekend
that Tada, a senior NPA leader, surrendered to the military in Sarangani
province. Tada was also tagged by the military as among those who attacked a
group of army soldiers conducting anti-dengue seminar in Sarangani's Malapatan
town that left at least 2 infantrymen wounded.
There was no immediate statement from the military about
the accusations and army spokesmen did not answer phone calls made by
journalists.
The NPA is fighting for the establishment of a Maoist
state in the country. Peace talks between the rebel group and the Arroyo
government collapsed in 2004 after both sides failed to sign a political deal
that would put an end to decades of fighting.
