Fr. Tan remains active with the NPA — Aguilar

Fr. Rustico Tan, who was arrested in Santander town on Thursday, remains to be an active member of the New People’s Army (NPA).
Col. Medel Aguilar, spokesperson of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Central Command (Centcom), belied claims of Tan’s family that he was a peace-loving man who did not have any connections with the rebel group.

“According to our information (Tan remains an) active member (of the NPA),” said Aguilar in an interview on Tuesday.
He also clarified that they never hid Tan, 76, who is now under the custody of the Bohol Provincial Police Office (BPPO).

Centcom, Aguilar said, took custody of the detainee for only a day before they turned him over to the police on Friday.

“Actually di naman natin tinatago. Sila ang nagtatago palagay ko kasi for many years na hinahanap sya di naman sila nagsasabi na nagpunta sa kanila (We are not hiding him. I think they’re (family members) the ones hiding him because of all the years we’ve been looking for him and they never informed us that he even visited them). That is a serious offense,” said Aguilar.

Superintendent Virgilio Bayon-on, head of the Police Community Relations Office (PCRO) of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO), said they turned Tan over to the BPPO on Sunday to face the charges against him.

Elements of the Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) arrested Tan in his home in Barangay Pasil, Santander town, on Thursday based on warrants issued for his arrest by a Regional Trial Court judge in Bohol province for pending murder charges against him.

PIB head Joie Yape Jr. said that Tan had over a dozen warrants issued for multiple murder cases, but he said that is not privy to details of these warrants.

Aguilar said Tan’s operations mainly covered the Visayas regions.

Tan’s arrest, he said, will now give justice to those who were victimized by his criminal works.

Members of the Tan family went to CPPO on Monday to ask for the former priest’s whereabouts.

Phoebe Zoe Sanchez, a human rights advocate and an associate professor of history and sociology at the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu, said they wanted to know of Tan’s condition and clarify the basis for his arrest.

“Constitutional rights of the prisoner is to inform the relatives asa sila (where they are),” Sanchez said in an interview on Monday.

His family was also concerned of his health condition especially since he is sick of diabetes, added Sanchez who was accompanied by Tan’s son, Nicolo, and niece, Elizabeth, during her CPPO visit.

Sanchez insisted that Tan never had ties with rebel groups and instead acted as a peace negotiator in the 1980s.

“He (Tan) is a peacemaker. It is not true he is an active member of rebel group,” Sanchez said. /With reports from Silliman Intern Alven Marie A. Timtim