No compensation for Prudencio Calubid Jr.

📷: Prudencio Calubid Jr.  | Maria Sol Taule FB

By DIEGO MORRA

The case of Prudencio Calubid Jr., 81, illustrates just how inefficient, incompetent and unjust the Philippine National Police (PNP) leadership is as it maintained its insane allegation that Calubid Jr. is the same Prudencio Calubid that the police and military have been hunting down for his role as a peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP.)

Apparently, the PNP never read the report that Prudencio Calubid had been missing since June 26, 2006, the same day that University of the Philippines-Diliman students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan were abducted in Hagonoy, Bulacan by burly armed men along with Manuel Merino, a peasant who tried to help them as they were bundled up by state agents. Former Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan had been convicted in the Empeno-Cadapan case for serious illegal detention. Empeno and Cadapan were apparently brutalized, witnesses said.

The disappearance of NDFP consultant Prudencio Calubid, his wife Celina Palma, and companions Gloria Soco and Ariel Beloy has not been solved despite the widespread dissemination of their abduction in Bicol by the usual posse committing human rights violations during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, when hundreds of activists were kidnapped, murdered and disappeared. The abduction of Calubid was meant to derail the peace process between the government and the NDFP in 2006. Now, one of Palparan’s underlings is still opposed to the peace talks, bragging that he would reduce the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New People’s Army (NPA) and the NDFP to insignificance. The only trouble is that the fighting continues despite the bowdlerized reports from the military.

The 16th Division of the Court of Appeals granted the habeas corpus petition filed by a relative of an ailing octogenarian on June 17, 2025 and ordered his immediate release from custody. Calubid Jr. is a retired technician who worked at the US Navy Base in Subic and is a long-time resident of Olongapo City. He was bundled off to jail by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of PNP on December 7, 2024 since he happened to be a namesake of Prudencio Calubid, the NDFP consultant with a P7.8-million bounty on his head when he disappeared. The following year, NDFP consultant Leo Velasco was also manhandled and abducted in Cagayan de Oro City. Despite proof that Calubid, from Eastern Visayas, was abducted by state agents in Camarines Sur in 2006, the PNP maintained the myth that he is the missing NDFP consultant and constantly pressured him to admit so.

Despite his release, Prudencio Calubid will be subject to further injustice since the state cannot be expected to compensate him for unjust prosecution. Moreover, under Republic Act No. 7309, only those convicted are eligible for compensation by the Board of Claims. The compensation is based on the number of months of imprisonment or detention, for a maximum of P1,000 per month. Those awarded may be entitled to reimbursement for expenses like hospitalization, medical treatment, and lost wages. Moreover, RA 7309 fixes the maximum compensation at P60,000, which is not even enough to pay for the transportation costs of the Calubid family from Olongapo City to Manila and vice-versa for six months. In the case of two Aeta farmers tortured by military agents and “convicted” on the basis of confession under duress, the reversal of the decision in their case entitles them to a maximum compensation of P60,000.

Investigators must have been walking on their heads when they insisted that the elderly Calubid was the NDFP consultant despite being presented with dozens of government-issued documents disproving their allegation. This is akin to the Panesa case, when the military nabbed and battered a security guard whom they claimed to be an NPA leader in Southern Luzon named “Benjamin Mendoza.” Curiously, Panesa was a member of the Community Home Defense Force (CHDF) before he landed a job as a security guard, but this did not stop his captors from incarcerating him. It took a lot of time before Panesa was freed. As in the case of Calubid. “Benjamin Mendoza” also a bounty on his head as a leading regional cadre.

It is strange why the prosecutors played along with the egregious claims against Calubid for the past six months. Just checking his job record, his SSS contributions and other pertinent documents that the elderly Olongapo resident could not have been Prudencio Calubid of Eastern Visayas, who was a prime military target for organizing guerrilla bases in the Leyte-Samar area. As in the case of Panesa, the prosecutors gave short shrift to Calubid’s ample proof that he cannot be the NDFP consultant. The reward money for both Calubid and “Benjamin Mendoza” was more than P15-million, an amount that would make some officers salivate. The CA slammed the CIDG for lack of due diligence in contrast to the evidence offered by Calubid. The appeals court chastised CIDG for failing to “conduct even basic verification within the very community where Prudencio Jr. had resided for several years.” Added the court: “(T)he facts … reveal a very troubling truth: an elderly and frail man remains in the custody of the State, despite evidence indicating that he is not ‘Prudencio Calubid.’”

“We are relieved that Tay Pruding is finally free,” said Karapatan deputy secretary general Atty. Maria Sol Taule. “In the first place, Calubid should not have been arrested and detained. He was subjected to harsh prison conditions, worsening his health condition. He is among the victims of a bounty system of government that has victimized countless others. Tay Pruding has the option to sue his captors, as justice needs to be rendered for many like him who were arbitrarily arrested and detained. There are more than 700 political prisoners like him who should be released,” Taule said. Before his release, Calubid was the country’s oldest political prisoner. He was one of 106 elderly and 100 ailing political prisoners. He suffers from chronic kidney disease and severe gout and could neither walk nor stand unaided.