PHILIPPINES: A man is detained for Maguindanao massacre in place of the real accuse

Dear friends, 

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concern about the continued detention of a man that the police have arrested as a suspect in the Maguindanao Massacre in place of the real accuse. The police harassed his common-law wife by threatening her into admitting that her husband and the person they were to arrest are the same person despite their names and faces being mismatched. 

CASE DETAILS: (Based on the documentation by the Moro Women’s Center, Inc.) 

On November 10, 2010, Ramon Dadulo was taken, supposedly for ‘questioning’, by policemen attached to the Municipal Police Station of Glan, Sarangani province. But he was never released from police custody until he was transported to Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan in Taguig City where he is presently detained. 

To legally justify his detention Dadulo, a faith healer in his village, the police harassed his common-law wife, Lilibeth Lombone, for her to “admit that the man in the picture, Nasser Malaguia, and my live-in partner Ramon Dadulo are one and the same person” subject of the arrest order. They coerced Lilibeth whom they summoned at their police station in signing the statement they have already prepared for her. 

Before signing her statement, Lilibeth did told the police that Ramon was “not involved with the Maguindanao Massacre” and the photograph of Nasser Malaguia, one of the accused in the Maguindanao massacre, they showed to her is not Ramon. But Joel, chief of police of the said station, told her to just follow his orders. Lilibeth was so “afraid for my life that I agreed to sign the affidavit they prepared”. She could not be bothered to read the statement because “they refused to let me go” and she was “surrounded by the police officers who carried their respective firearms”. 

From November 10 to 18, Ramon was held in police custody at the Municipal Police Station in Maasim, Sarangani and later temporarily at the regional headquarters of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG XII) in General Santos City. On November 12, his physical examination revealed he had injuries received while in police custody. 

Police ignore pleas to prove his real identity 
When his wife, Lilibeth, learned on November 18 that Ramon was to be transported to Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, she asked the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) in General Santos City to intervene to prevent his transfer. Here, Ramon’s family submitted his identity documents to PAO to prove his real identity. 

However, despite the PAO’s intervention, by personally visiting and speaking to Police Superintendent Bowen Joey Masawding of the CIDG XII, at their headquarters, asking them to “defer his transfer and asked for time in order to submit all the documents to prove his identity” he told them he could not do anything because he is not in charge of his custody but the Municipal Police Station of Glan. 

Upon P/Supt. Masawding’s instruction, the PAO lawyers went to the Police Regional Office (PRO XII) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Barangay Tambler, General Santos City where they spoke to Police Chief Inspector (PCI) Mahar Villasis, an administrative staff for the PNP regional director. Here, he informed them that “they received no information regarding the arrest and possible transfer to Manila of said detainee”. 

Here, Villasis told them he would inform P/Supt. Quidilla, the PNP provincial director of Sarangani on the matter. He told the PAO and the detainee’s family to present Ramon’s identity documents to him because “they are the one directly responsible for his arrest”. They had to travel nearly two hours to the Sarangani Police Provincial Office (SPPO). Here, they met Senior Police Officer 1 (SPO1) Rivera, chief of clerk, who also “assured that no scheduled detainee transport to Manila involving Maguindanao Massacre”. SP01 Rivera then told them to return to their office the following day, November 19. 

But on that day, November 19, Ramon was transported to Manila. The PAO has written a summary of its report on this, to read see: Summary Report 

When the PAO lawyers contacted PCI Villasis “to clarify us to who has direct control and supervision over Mr. Dadulo’s detention” he told them that he could not help because “their boss is having conference”. When asked when his boss free to talk he “would not comment and instead instructed us to just go to their office”. 

When follow-up calls were made, this time PCI Villasis had already excused himself, the PNP regional and the provincial office, any responsibility on Ramon’s detention. He argued that it was the CIDG XII, not them, who had direct “control and supervision over the detention of Mr. Dadulo”; and that they could not do anything to defer the transfer. PCI Villasis version, however, contradicts to what the CIDG XII told PAO and Ramon’s family. 

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: 

Therefore, all the PNP units, the CIDG XII, SPPO and the PRO XII of the PNP, knows full well to the questions that the man, Ramon Didulo, in the custody of the CIDG XII, is not the Nasser Malaguia that was subject of their arrest. 

However, it was obvious that all of them either deliberately deceived the family or refuse to take any responsibility in making a decision to the questions of the legality of Ramon’s arrest and detention. As a result of their actions, Ramon and his family were effectively deprived of possibilities of judicial remedy, like filing petition for writ of habeas corpus, at the early stage. 

Here, the PAO and Ramon’s family were unable to submit their petition that could have questioned the legality of his detention at the court in General Santos City. It would have been better for his family because the place is geographically closer to their home but due to his transfer his family now find it difficult to follow up his case. 

A witness support Ramon’s alibi 
Apart from Ramon’s wife, Herminigildo Olog, a village chief in their community, signed a statement to support Ramon’s alibi. He stated that he personally saw him in Malapatan, Sarangani treating one of his ailing constituents, Lina Mante. 

Thus, Olog’s statement gives an effect that physically it could have been impossible for him to be in Maguindanao because the two places are far from each other by distance. He also confirmed that he has personally known Ramon since February 2009 until January 2010. His statement was no longer heard because Ramon was already transferred to Metro Manila. 

Wife retracted her statement 
Ramon’s common-law wife, Lilibeth, also retracted from her earlier coerced statement to the police by signing another statement on December 6, 2010 effectively denying all its content that he is Nasser Malaguia, in which the basis of the police in legally justifying their arrest and continued detention of Ramon. An excerpt of her statement is below: 

“f) …the Chief of Police of the said Station, Sir Joel came inside the office, he asked me where was Ramon Dadulo in November 2009; If he had made some travels that time; If he was involved in the Maguindanao Massacre. I answered him that Ramon is not involved with the Maguindanao Massacre. Sir Joel; told me that I should admit that the man in the picture, Nasser M. Malaguia , and my live in partner Ramon Dadulo are one and the same person. That I should execute an affidavit and signed it to that effect and then everything will be okay; 

g) He then left me to think about it. But some of the police officers continued to harass me. I wanted to go home but they refuse to let me go; 

h) I was surrounded by the police officers who carried their respective firearms. I was afraid for my life that I agreed to sing the affidavit they prepared; 

i) I did not even read the document, I just signed it and that was the only time the police officers allowed me to leave. 

4. I attest to the veracity of the foregoing facts to the best of my knowledge and belief that the document I signed at the Police Station was done because of feat from bodily harm as the police officers surrounded me and continued to insist that I signed the document.”

SUGGESTED ACTION: 
Please write letters to the concerned authorities listed below expressing your concern about this case. 

The AHRC has also written letters to the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention for their intervention in this case. 

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER