She asked the appellate court to direct the police and military officials to produce her parents before the court in good health and to state the reason for keeping them in detention.

She also asked the court to order the police and military officials to disclose her father’s whereabouts, and to stop them from further harming her parents.

Principe and Velasco are reported to be consultants of the National Democratic Front, the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

In a statement, the groups Karapatan and Desaparecidos said Principe had been transferred from the custodial center in Camp Crame to Candon, Ilocos Sur.

They said the transfer was made at 11:45 p.m. on Jan. 22, the eve of the filing of Santos’ petition.

“Karapatan and Desaparecidos condemn in the strongest term the illegal transfer of political prisoner Elizabeth Principe from the custodial center in Camp Crame to Candon, Ilocos Sur,” the two groups said.

Santos asked the court to issue, while her petition was being heard, a temporary protection order directing authorities to put her and her parents under the custody of a private institution that would ensure their safety.

She also asked to be allowed to inspect police and military detachments, and to gain access to documents pertaining to her parents.

Named respondents in Santos’ petition were President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Philippine National Police Director General Avelino Razon Jr., Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano, PNP Director Edgardo Doromal, Chief Supt. Raul Bacalzo, Chief Supt. Teodorico Capuyan Sr., Supt. Asher Dolina, Senior Supt. Julian Pantonial, Chief Insp. Joel Ana; and Col. Eduardo Año.

Pre-med graduate

Santos said her mother was a graduate of a premedical course and was teaching residents of rural communities in Cagayan Valley health practices, including the prevention of the spread of malaria.

This was Santos’ account, as stated in her petition:

On Nov. 28, 2007, Principe was leaving a Quezon City clinic where she had undergone a chest X-ray when men in black uniforms with police markings accosted her and shoved her into a waiting van.

Principe’s captors subjected her to psychological torture for 72 hours. She was kept cuffed and blindfolded, and threatened with harm to get her to confess her alleged subversive activities.

She was also “forced to listen to extremely high volumes of atrocious selections of rap music, heavy metal and rock and roll.”

Principe was subsequently presented to the media by the military, which said she had six outstanding warrants of arrest for rebellion, kidnapping, murder, robbery and arson.

2 warrants

But Santos said she had checked the warrants and learned that only two warrants -- which she described as “dubious and highly irregular” -- had been issued by the courts in Cagayan Valley.

She said the first warrant for robbery with murder -- issued on Nov. 21, 2005, by Judge Eden Panay -- had no caption and had blurred entries on the spaces for the names of the accused and the docket number.

She added that she, along with members of Karapatan, later learned that the case was archived and dismissed on July 23, 1992, without Panay issuing a new warrant.

The second warrant was issued by Judge Sergio Plan on Feb. 27, 1990, in connection with a rebellion case, Santos said.

But she said the records of the case could not be found.

She said her mother had also asked the police for copies of the documents to justify her arrest but that the latter had not responded so far.

“All of these events point to the obvious fact that Elizabeth Principe was abducted without the benefit of a valid subsisting warrant, and neither were her rights as a citizen respected when state security forces took her into custody,” the daughter said.
CIDG

As for her father, Velasco was abducted in Cagayan de Oro City on Feb. 19, 2007, Santos said.

Per her account, men in plainclothes, along with a man in a black shirt with the letters “CIDG” on the back, forced Velasco into a van.

After the two vehicles involved in the abduction left, a city patrol car came and a police officer uttered the phrase, “Amin yun (That was ours),” referring to the operation and indicating that the police knew of it.

Santos said that although the abduction was reported to the police, the latter did not conduct a genuine investigation and no results were given to her.

She said she checked with the Land Transportation Office the plate number of the van involved in the abduction, and found out that it did not match the vehicle on which it was last seen.

According to Santos, she went to the Intelligence Service of the AFP and was informed by Lt. Col. Jack Baltazar that Leo Velasco was on the target list of military intelligence.

She quoted Baltazar as further saying that he was not involved in her father’s abduction, and that if her father had been caught, the military would have announced it.

Said Santos: “The petitioner strongly suspects that the combined military and police elements who have had their eyes on Leo Velasco are the ones responsible for abducting him. Lt. Col. Jack Baltazar admitted to the petitioner that the military had long wanted to get Leo Velasco for his alleged underground activities, though he bluntly denied that he was in their [custody].”

Plans of transfer

Santos also said that the police had announced plans to transfer Principe to the courts where she had pending cases.

But since the warrants are questionable, the plan could just be a “mere pretext to deliver [Principe] to the clutches of the officers and men of the 5th Infantry Division,” she said.

She noted that this could endanger her mother’s life, and cited the statement of United Nations special rapporteur Philip Alston that the Philippine military dealt severely with perceived rebels.

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