Nasipit, Agusan del Norte. Map courtesy of Google
SAN FRANCISCO, Agusan del Sur (MindaNews / 2 September) — Police have confirmed the arrest of women’s rights activist Atheliana “Atel” Hijos in Agusan del Norte on Tuesday but did not say where she is being detained.
Hijos, the ailing 76-year old secretary general of women’s rights group Gabriela in Caraga region is now under the custody of the Regional Intelligence Division of Police Regional Office 13 (PRO 13), Maj. Jennifer Ometer, public information officer of PRO 13, said in a phone interview.
But Ometer did not disclose Hijos’ place of detention.
“She should face her charges that is why we don’t divulge the location of her detention but rest assured she is in good hands and health personnel are attending to her condition,” she said.
Hijos, who is already bedridden due to various illnesses, was arrested in Barangay Kinabjangan, Nasipit, Agusan del Norte for charges of murder, kidnapping and serious illegal detention.
Ometer said Hijos is receiving the same treatment accorded to communist guerrillas who are wounded in encounters, that is, being attended to by a government physician,.
She said Hijos and Dr. Naty Castro, former secretary general of human rights group Karapatan Caraga, are both facing charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention.
The case against the two for kidnapping and serious illegal detention was filed on January 14 last year, less than a month after the alleged incident occurred in Sibagat town in Agusan del Sur on December 18, 2018.
An information was filed in court on 18 December 2019, a subpoena was issued on 17 January 2021, the doctor was arrested on February 18 this year, and her lawyers filed a motion to dismiss on February 22.
Asked why they only arrested Hijos on Tuesday, Ometer said both Castro and Hijos were named in the same charge sheet but claimed the latter was hiding and it was only lately that intelligence operatives finally tracked her down.
Gabriela said Hijos was arrested on allegations that she participated in armed encounters.
In a separate statement, Karapatan called the charges against Hijos “a blatant lie considering Atel’s senior age and frail physical condition.”
“Atel has pulmonary tuberculosis and hypertension, and she had a mild stroke. She has been bedridden, and she has difficulties walking, at times using a wheelchair. How can an elderly and elderly woman, with such frail built like Atel’s, possibly commit all the crimes alleged against her?” Karapatan said.
Castro was released from the Agusan del Sur provincial jail after 42 days of detention after Acting Presiding Judge Fernando Fudalan Jr. of the Regional Trial Court in Bayugan City dismissed her case.
In a resolution dated March 25, Fudalan Jr. said the court “finds that probable cause does not exist in the absence of evidence to prove the identity of the accused and so holds to overturn the previous findings of probable cause.”
But another judge ordered Castro’s arrest anew.
In his eight-page ruling, Judge Ferdinand Villanueva, executive judge of RTC Branch 7, granted the motion for consideration filed by Prosecutor Genesis Efren, agreeing there was no denial of the due process and the Court acquires jurisdiction over Castro.
The decision reads: “The Motion for Reconsideration is granted. Let an E-warrant of arrest be issued against the accused, Dr. Maria Natividad Castro.”
Castro, who spent at least two decades in community health work in Agusan and a former secretary general of Karapatan Caraga, was arrested in her home in San Juan City in Metro Manila evening of February 18 this year for her alleged involvement in the kidnapping and serious illegal detention of a paramilitary man in Sibagat December 29, 2018. (Chris V. Panganiban/MindaNews)
