Update: Kin of 43 health workers go to Supreme Court
Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) strongly condemned the illegal raid and abduction of 42 community health workers and doctors who were conducting health skills training in Morong, Rizal Saturday.
Around 300 soldiers and police of the Southern Luzon Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Rizal Philippine National Police and headed by Colonel Aurelio Baladad and Police Superintendent Balonglong, respectively, forcibly entered the farmhouse of Dr. Melecia Velmonte around 6:15 this morning. The training participants were then lined up, frisked, blindfolded, and forcibly brought to Camp Capinpin, headquarters of the 202nd Infantry Brigade, AFP.
Lt. Col. Noel Detoyato, civil-military operations chief of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, said in a text message to GMA News that the 17 men and 26 women are suspected members of the rebel group He said initial investigation showed that the suspected rebels were conducting a training on how to make improvised explosives when they were nabbed by authorities.