PNP Orders Surveillance of Priests
Published in Philippine Daily Inquirer
(February 28, 2000)
CEBU CITY - Is the government running after priests whoa re percieved to be ant-government.
The Philippine National Police headqurarters in Camp Crame has ordered all city and provincial directos to submit the list af all priests charge with any crime.
The military in Central Visayas is also "monitoring " the activities of priests who are affiliated with cause-oriented groups that are believed to be communists fronts.
Among those being monitored os Fr. Max Abalos, national chairperson of the leftist group Sanlakas, who has spearheaded several rallies in Cebu.
When reached for comment, Abalos said the monitoring may be a prelude to martial law.
"It is ironic that as we celebrate the people's triumph over the dictatorship, this report came out that the administration is monitoring these red priests," he told the INQUIRER.
The PNP headquarters in Camp Crame issued an order to all police, city and provincial directors to submit a list of priests charged either in the prosecutor's offic or in courts.
Te directive wa received through a radio message by the PNP-Central Visayas command in Camp Sergio Osmeña here on Feb. 16.
The orer gave the police until Feb. 22 to submit the list which would include the details of the charges filed against the priests.
These detals include the name of the complainant, the name of the priest, the date and place of the offense committed, the date of filing, the name of the courts prosecutor's officehandling the case, the criminal case number and the status of the case.
The purpose of the list was not explained on the radio message but it was requested by Sen Robert barbers, head of the Senate Committee on public order and illegal drugs last Feb. 15
But senior police official in Camp Sergio Osmeña, who requested anonymity, told the INQUIRER that the order was made because there are priests who support the New Peoples Army.
"That is why we have to submit their names," he told the INQUIRER.
Supt. Roberto Comilang, Cebu polie director, said he did not know what was the purpose of the order from Camp Crame.
"Let them do the explaining because we are only following the orders," he said in Cebuano.
Supt. Lamberto Alilin, chief of the Provincial Intelligence and Investgation Division, said the Cebu Provincial Poice Submitted only the name of Fr. Roberto Villanueva, former parish priest of Cordova town, Mactan Island.
Villanueva was charged with violating the National Building Code when he dug up portions of the Cordova town parish church looking for the fabled Yamashita teasure.
He is out on bail and has been tansferred by his religious superiors to another parish Lapulapu City, Mactan.
But a source at the Military Intelligence Group (MIG) based in Camp Lapulapu, headquarters of the Armed Forces in the Visayas, admitted to the INQUIRER that they had placed under monitoring Fr. Abalos whom they suspected to be a communist sympathizer.
Aside from Abalos, the military source said they have also put a number of Catholic priests in Cebu in their watch list because the clergymen are woring closely with cause-oriented groups that are identified as front organizations of Relations Democratic Front and the New People's Army.
The source said they could not charge the priests in courts because of the difficulty finding evidence against them.
"Many of them openly sympathize with le leftists," he said.
When reached for comment, Abalos said: "Let them do their surveillance, as long as they don't fabricate anything."
With a report by
Connie E Fernandez,
PDI Vuayas Bureau
