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By Julmunir I. Jannaral, Correspondent
(Second of four parts)
TWO days after the police raid on the Masjid Fi
Sabillillah in Cubao another two Muslim converts were reported
missing by their next of kin. They are Abdulwali Ancheta Villanueva
and Redendo Cain Dellosa, whose Muslim name is Habil Ahmad Dellosa.
Their relatives, however, denounced the arrest as another case of
police “frame-up.”
Villanueva’s wife, Hana, said her husband had
an appointment with a fellow Muslim brother Sunday afternoon, March
28, at the Kenny Rogers at SM Fairview in Quezon City. They were
near the mall as early as 4 p.m. But her husband left her in the
car, because she did not want to move around, owing to her
pregnancy. Hana expects to deliver her first baby this month.
At 4:45 p.m., Villanueva sent a text message to
his wife telling her that the person he was supposed to meet had not
yet arrived. A few minutes after, Hana also sent a text message, but
got no reply from her husband.
Sensing something unusual, Hana called him
instead at his mobile phone, which rang a few times before it went
off. Then she redialed but all she heard was a recording: “The
subscriber cannot be reached, please try again later.”
Hana waited in the car until 6 p.m., but her
husband had not yet returned. Feeling helpless, she informed her
mother about the fate of her husband. Then she approached the SM
security guards at the parking lot to ask them to call her husband
at the public-address system. The guards noticed she was wearing a
hijab, a veil worn by Muslim women, and they told her that the man
they saw being arrested by men in civilian clothes could be her
husband.
What she heard from the security guards made her
anxious and tense, and she immediately figured out what would happen
to her husband. At first Hana did not want to leave the mall, hoping
her husband would appear. But it was already past 8 p.m. and the
mall would be closing an hour later. She kept on waiting. After the
long wait, her mother advised her to go home to their home in
Cavite.
Hana could not sleep the whole night: this was
the first time her husband was not at her side. She sought the help
of relatives and friends and told them about the incident.
She went to the police station in Carmona,
Cavite, to have her husband placed in the police blotter as a
missing person. She also reported the case to the police station in
Fairview, Quezon City, that has jurisdiction over SM Fairview.
Hana felt a sigh of relief when the Foreign
Intelligence and Liaison Office (FILO) of the Philippine National
Police (PNP), headed by Senior Supt. Fernando H. Mendez Jr., called
up on March 30, asking her to come over. Hana, accompanied by the
human-rights activist Amirah Ali Lidasan, rushed to the FILO at Camp
Crame. There, she had a tearful reunion with her missing husband.
Hana broke down after seeing his condition. He had a hematoma on his
right eye.
Villanueva revealed what happened to him to his
wife. He told Hana how he was forcibly taken by police officers. The
inquest information submitted to the Department of Justice
identified the policemen as Police Officer 3 Diego P. Castillo of
the FILO, PNP Intelligence Group, and Police Officer 2 Alexius C.
Nobleza, also of the PNP Intelligence Group.
Villanueva complained to his wife that his body
was still aching, having been beaten up while in police custody.
Hana could not say a thing after her husband’s disclosure; all she
did was tear up knowing the unbearable situation he had gone
through. She said the police tortured her husband into signing a
document admitting ownership of the evidence allegedly confiscated
by them from him.
Despite his unbearable pain, Hana said her
husband refused to sign the document, which among other things
listed the pieces of evidence that do not belong to him.
In the information filed by Police
Superintendent Mendez, which he sent to the inquest prosecutor of
the justice department, these pieces of evidence were purportedly
confiscated from Villanueva. These consisted of one Taurus 9-mm.
pistol; one magazine containing 12 rounds of live ammunition for a
9-mm. pistol, 10 red Eveready 9-volt batteries with wire connected
to an Alcatel cell phone, contained in a navy-blue bag and one 6610
cell phone.
Hana said the police planted these pieces of
evidence to pin down her husband as a terrorist. “How can he bring
those alleged explosive materials inside the mall knowing that
security guards were conducting a strict checkup of all customers
getting inside?” she asked.
(To be continued)
Part 1 |Part
3 |Conclusion |
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