CA frees man, 81, misidentified by PNP-CIDG as NPA leader
The Court of Appeals (CA) has ordered an elderly man to be released from the Manila City Jail for being wrongly identified by authorities as a New People’s Army (NPA) leader and consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
The case of mistaken identity, the court said, was a blow to the image of the Philippine National Police because of the “evident lack of due diligence” on the part of the officers who six months ago arrested Prudencio Calubid Jr., an 81-year-old construction worker.
In a decision dated June 27, the CA’s 16th Division granted the writ of habeas corpus filed by the daughter of Calubid, whom agents of the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) mistook for their target who had the same name—but minus the “Junior.”
It turned out that the CIDG was after another Prudencio Calubid, an alleged high-ranking officer of the communist NPA and longtime NDFP consultant.
The CA said it was convinced that the arrested person, known in his Olongapo City neighborhood also as “Tay Pruding,” was not the man the police were looking for.
The court directed a respondent in the petition, Supt. Lino Soriano, the Manila City Jail warden, to free Calubid Jr. immediately.
The other respondents are PNP chief Nicolas Torre III, who was the former head of the PNP-CIDG, and former PNP chief Rommel Marbil.
P7.8-million bounty
In December last year, the police arrested Calubid Jr. for supposedly being the communist insurgent who had a P7.8-million bounty on his head.
According to court records, Calubid Jr. did not resist arrest since he was “confident he would be released as soon as they verified his identity.”
The CA castigated the manner by which the CIDG handled the investigation, noting that it merely relied on social media sources “as though a comprehensive and meticulous intelligence operation” was conducted.
The CIDG’s conclusion on the supposed resemblance of “Tay Pruding” with the other Calubid was “at best biased, subjective and speculative,” it added.
Serious lapse in judgment
“It is not uncommon for Filipinos to (have) identical or similar names, though they are clearly different individuals. This is precisely why there are recognized methods of establishing one’s identity and uniqueness,” the court said, referring to government-issued IDs and other official records.
The “serious lapse in judgment” by the police could erode public trust in law enforcement, it said.
While law enforcers must be “vigilant in combating crimes,” CA said, the “fulfillment of their duty should not result in the subversion of basic freedoms.”
‘Bounty-hunting’
“This case does not exist in a vacuum. Rather, it sends the wrong message to the public that those tasked to serve and protect the people … are (the) very reason to fear injustice, and that fundamental rights may be easily overlooked for convenience, carelessness, or possibly, personal and selfish gains,” it added.
Human rights advocates denounced the six-month detention of Calubid Jr. as a “deliberate misidentification” driven by the “perverse incentives of a bounty system.”
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), who represented Calubid Jr. in the habeas corpus petition, said the CA ruling revealed “a deeper problem” and exposed how authorities would engage in “bounty-hunting” just to gain merits and incentives.
“A P7.8-million reward was offered for the real Prudencio Calubid’s capture. In such a system, law enforcement agencies, including the PNP, CIDG, and entities under the NTF-Elcac (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict), are incentivized not to uphold justice, but to deliver ‘results’ that align with operational quotas and reward mechanisms,” it said.
Watchdog relieved
NUPL lawyers said they were planning to file countercharges against the officers who arrested and investigated Calubid Jr. over his “unlawful incarceration.”
The human rights watchdog Karapatan, through its deputy secretary general Maria Sol Taule, welcomed the court order.
“We are relieved that Tay Pruding is finally free,” Taule said in a statement. “In the first place, Calubid should not have been arrested and detained. He was subjected to harsh prison conditions, worsening his health condition.’’
“He is among the victims of a bounty system of government that has victimized countless others,” she said.
The other Calubid—the one that the police actually wanted—and his wife Celina Palma have been counted among the victims of enforced disappearances since they went missing in 2006.
