Gunmen in Bulacan abduct 3 left-wing activists

06/30 2:45:38 PM

MANILA (AP) - Three left-wing activists were abducted by masked gunmen in the northern Philippines, a human rights group said Friday. The military commander in the area denied involvement while claiming the missing people were communist rebels.

Two women student activists from the University of the Philippines and a male companion were seized before dawn Monday from a farming village outside Hagonoy town, said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, secretary general of the human rights group Karapatan.

They were blindfolded and forced to board a passenger minibus at gunpoint, Enriquez said.

She said more than 170 left-wing activists and suspected communist rebels have been victims of "forced disappearance" since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took office in 2001.

Juan Paolo Alfonso, chairman of the University of the Philippines Student Council, said witnesses reported the gunmen removed a shirt worn by one of the women, Karem Empeno, and used it to blindfold her.

"Who else would have the motive to do this but the military," Alfonso said.

Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, commander of the army's 7th Infantry Division that operates in the region, said the three were members of the communist New People's Army and were collecting money from fishpond owners in the area.

He said, however, that none of his troops reported holding the activists, although other military groups outside his command, particularly intelligence units, may have seized them.

"According to our investigation ... many people are happy that they have disappeared because they have been threatening and extorting money from them, so we are happy as well that they are gone, if it's true that they are gone," he told The Associated Press.

Alfonso said Empeno was a sociology major doing research in farming communities in Hagonoy, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Manila, for her graduation thesis.

The second woman, Sherlyn Cadapan, who is pregnant, is a former student council officer at the university who works as a researcher for a farmers' group in Bulacan province, which includes Hagonoy. No background was immediately available on the third person, Manuel Merino, Alfonso said.

Karapatan has reported that in addition to the abductions, more than 600 left-wing activists and their supporters have been killed, allegedly by government security forces, or their agents since 2001.

Arroyo has announced a tough new campaign against communist rebels, backing it with the release of 1 billion pesos (US million) to buy attack helicopters and other equipment for government forces to finish off the 37-year-old insurgency.