Police intelligence officer defects to NPA
BY JAIME ESPINA, abs-cbnNEWS.com
BACOLOD CITY - Calling himself a "victim of injustice," the deputy provincial officer of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Negros Oriental formally announced his defection to the New People’s Army (NPA) on Sunday.
Joel Escubido Geollegue signaled his break with the government by calling himself "former Senior Police Officer 2" at a press conference in an NPA camp in the southern Negros hinterlands. He was with a heavily armed NPA platoon.
The Supreme Court earlier sentenced Geollegue to six years in jail for robbery.
"Mabuhay ang rebolusyonaryong himagsikan (Long live the revolutionary struggle)," shouted Geollegue, who was wearing a CIDG T-shirt and was armed with a .45 caliber pistol.
He introduced himself as "Ka (Comrade) Reymar."
Gollegue became emotional when he said his defection was "the most painful and difficult decision I have had to make in my entire life."
He was in tears when he addressed a message to his wife, Ivy, daughter Krishna, 17, and son Jovy Karl, seven months. "I love you," he said.
An NPA officer read a statement accepting Geollegue into the rebel ranks. He said the policeman’s defection was proof of the justness of the communist cause.
Geollegue called on policemen and soldiers "to join me."
"This is our cause, the cause of the people," he said.
Geollegue's defection came ten years after Brig. Gen. Raymundo Jarque joined the rebel group.
Geollegue belonged to the Criminal Investigation Section (CIS) unit of the defunct Philippine Constabulary (PC) under Jarque, then Army commander in Negros.
Jarque was later ordered by a court to assist in executing an order in a property dispute between members of the Peña family of Pulupandan.
The enforcement of the court order led to the filing of criminal and administrative charges against Jarque by lawyer Magdaleno Peña.
Jarque consequently joined the NPA to seek redress for what he claimed was a grave injustice.
Jarque emerged from the hills two years after his defection to become consultant of the National Democratic Front (NDF) peace panel.
A 28-year veteran of the armed services, Geollegue began his career as an Army private before joining the PC in 1981 and the Philippine National Police (PNP) later.
As an infantryman from 1977 to 1981, Geollegue saw action against Moro rebels in Mindanao, winning 14 Military Merit Medals, 18 military commendations and a Wounded Personnel Medal, the latter for his participation in the bloody landing at Panamao, Sulu in October 1978.
The 37th Infantry Battalion, where Geollegue belonged, lost 21 men in the first wave of attack and was pinned down for almost a day before Air Force fighters came to their rescue. For the action, the battalion earned a Presidential Streamer, which Geollegue said is traditionally awarded to units that have suffered heavy casualties.
In his first assignment with the PC at the 438th Company in Lupon, Davao Oriental, from 1981 to 1983, Geollegue was among those who successfully held off NPA guerrillas who tried to overrun the company headquarters.
Although he said he was never lured into corruption, Geollegue admitted his career was checkered by his assignment to the Military Intelligence and Security Unit of the Davao Metropolitan District Command from 1983 to 1985.
"We were literally a death squad tasked to go after high profile targets, whether dissidents, criminals and even government officials and scalawag servicemen who had become too great a problem for the government," he said.
The period, he said, caused him "one of the greatest regrets" of his career because of the human rights violation and the "many innocents killed" by the unit.
He said among their targets were media practitioners accused of "helping spread anti-government propaganda."
While he declined to discuss specific cases, he warned that a pattern similar to those of his "death squad" days is emerging with the recent wave of killings of activists, dissenters and journalists.
"This is all part of government’s grand design to silence its critics," he said.
An expert in intelligence and counterintelligence work, Geollegue was one of only 64 servicemen out of 141 applicants who passed a counterintelligence course at Camp Aguinaldo in 1982. It was conducted by former general Jose Almonte and trainers from Ft. Bragg and the Israeli Mossad.
Geollegue was named resident agent of the PC Regional Security Unit responsible for intelligence work against the NPA in southern Negros from 1986 to 1990 and was later assigned to the CIS, which later became the CIDG.
In 1998, he was transferred to the CIDG Region 7 office in Cebu before his posting as deputy provincial officer of the unit’s 71st Field Office based in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental.
In 1989, Geollegue said he was also involved in the failed coup attempt against former president Corazon Aquino.
Geollegue said he was driven to defect by his conviction in 2003 of robbery charges filed against him in 1993 for his supposed participation in a "hold-up" in Himamaylan town.
He claimed he was framed up by rogue policemen who ran a crime ring in southern Negros responsible for, among others, supplying illegal drugs to a major distribution network in Bacolod City.
"They offered protection to one of the self-confessed participants in the crime in exchange for implicating me," he said.
He also accused now retired Judge Julio Aguirre, who handled the case in a lower court, of conniving with the rogue policemen to convict him.
"The judge disregarded the testimonies of my fellow CIDG operatives who testified that at the time of the crime, we were in San Carlos following up a case," he said.
He also claimed that policemen responsible for framing him utilized "influential contacts," including ranking government officials "close to Malacañang," to ensure the four to six-year sentence handed him by Aguirre was affirmed by the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.
Although the sentence allows him to apply for probation, "to do so will be an admission of guilt and I am innocent," Geollegue said.
The Supreme Court's affirmation of his sentence, he said, convinced him there was "no more option left for me. Now that I am here, I am willing to serve and to accept whatever tasks the comrades see fit to give me."
He said he had consulted his superiors and colleague in the CIDG about his defection and, "although most of them tried to persuade me not to do it, they all said they respected my decision and supported me."
At the time he sought out the rebels, he said "my status was ‘on official mission,’" but added he expected to be declared absent without leave.
He also confirmed having brought with him four high-powered firearms, including an Ingram machine pistol.
Geollegue admitted that when he first went to the hills "I had reservations, afraid that I might be misinterpreted or mistaken for a deep penetration agent. But I was also confident because I have no blood debts."
He said he expects a "smear campaign" to be launched against him, but said he worried more about the effects it would have on his family, especially his daughter, than on him.
"I have nothing to be ashamed of. Unlike many in the service who have amassed wealth, I have always raised my family honorably and simply. I do not have any property, not even my own house or vehicle," he said.
Contacted by phone, Geollegue’s wife said the last time she saw her husband was during the Holy Week.
"Since then, we have had only intermittent contact," she said.
She thanked the rebels "for welcoming him with open arms. Since we cannot find justice in the lowlands, it is right that we seek justice among the people and those who help the oppressed."
She appealed to the authorities for "understanding."
"You know he is not a criminal. I call on you to give him justice, to listen to him," she said.