BAGUIO CITY– A suspected civilian sympathizer of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) who peacefully returned to mainstream society recently clarified the contents of an affidavit that she was made to sign before a prosecutor which she was not allegedly given a copy of the same.
Anne Tauli, a native of Kin-iway, Besao, Mountain Province, said that on June 29, 2020, she was made to sign an affidavit before Senior Assistant City Prosecutor of Makati City Joel Vidan but she was not allegedly give a copy of the same.
However, she narrated that when the aforesaid affidavit was circulated in social media where her lawyer got hold of a copy, she realized after she read the copy that the contents of the same do not truthfully represent the information that she shared with different interrogators from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Office of the National Security Adviser during the two weeks that she was under detention and interrogation at the military camp in fort Bonifacio, Taguig City and at Navy Base, Baguio City.
She claimed that the affidavit was written in Tagalog, a language that she is not well versed on, thus, the need to clarify possible misinterpretations on the contents of the affidavit.
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On March 2020, she claimed that she was shocked when she received information from trusted sources that there was a shoot to kill order against her within the government security forces for alleged connections with the CPP, thus, she feared for her life because of the prevailing general fear as there are people who are being killed indiscriminately within the government’s drug war and anti-insurgency programs.
She stated that many activists are allegedly under threat and many have been killed because of reported accusations that they are members of the CPP, thus, she wanted to seek help for her security after she learned of the shoot to kill order but the declaration of the community quarantine prevented her from travellng outside of Besao.
According to her, nonetheless, the threats to her life and security were eminent and she was informed of a team of police officers who were directed to proceed to Besao supposedly to arrest her.
Between March and June 11, 2020, she had been living in fear and had been suffering from anxiety, heart palpitations and sleepless nights.
Fearing that the community quarantine will indefinitely extend while the threat on her life and security was forthcoming, she sought the assistance of National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. so that she will be allowed to clear her name and request for the recall of the shoot to kill order.
With the intervention of intermediaries, she was fetched by members of the AFP on June 11, 2020 from Besao and was brought to Baguio City where her goal on the said endeavor was to have her name cleared and removed from the security forces’ order of battle and to seek sanctuary.
Upon arriving in the city, Tauli stipulated that she was surprised that a press conference was organized and that she was put under custody by the AFP at the camp in Navy Base that reportedly distressed her even more, especially when it came out in the news that she was a New Peoples Army (NPA) surrenderee when she was not.
In Fort Bonifacio, she was reportedly interrogated in the detention added to the anxiety that had already built up in her because of the threats to her life and security and the pressure, stress and distress had taken its toll on her and her anxiety worsened and that she was always restless, intensed, heightened heartbeat, weak and tired, had trouble sleeping, always sweating and trembling and had trouble concentrating and focusing as she was yearning to go home and be with family and people that she was comfortable with.
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Before going home, she was visited by personnel of the NSA and a lawyer that she did not personally know and was presented with an affidavit and was told that it was a summary of what was asked of her during the interrogations, that there is need to finalize it immediately so that it can be notarized for her to go home.
She explained that at that time, she was so anxious and nervous, trembling and sweating, as she was feeling like headed and unfocused, and could not even concentrate to suggest any revisions and deletions and she was too trusting that the affidavit summarized the information that she shared during the interrogation, thus, she affixed her signature.
After a few days upon her return to the city and after being presented in a press conference, she was told that portions of her affidavit she signed on June 29, 2020 was being circulated in social media and she was alarmed on the supposed contents.
When she was able to get hold a copy of the same, she realized that it was not at all a summary of the information that she shared during the more than two weeks of interrogation while she was in detention and custody that she immediately sought the assistance of a trusted lawyer to withdraw her signature from the affidavit.
She asserted that there were a lot of information in the assailed affidavit that she never mentioned such that she did not admit that she was the Secretary-General of the white area committee of the Ilocos-Cordillera regional committee of the CPP; she had no knowledge of the position of Julius Giron in the CPP or have no personal information in relation to how he became the alleged officer-in-charge; she was not part of the establishment of the Cordillera Resource Center although she remembered that she was part of the put up of the Cordillera Consultative Committee; she did not mentioned anything about peoples organizations being put up by the CPP; she did not mention anything about taking part in the establishment of the Cordillera Peoples Democratic Front neither did she mention about any person who have part of such establishment because she had no personal knowledge of the same among others.
She underscored that the information that she shared during the 18-day that she was in custody was in relation to what she had been doing all her life in terms of career and any development work.
By Hent
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