ILOILO CITY – A veteran activist in Panay Island has been released after more than eight months in jail in Iloilo province.
Militant organization Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Panay said Elmer Forro, secretary general, was released on Wednesday, Dec. 7, from the Iloilo District Jail in Pototan town.
Judge Redentor Esperanza of a court in Janiuay town, Iloilo issued an order granting bail for Forro who is facing murder charges.
Forro was arrested last May by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) for alleged involvement in an April 2020 encounter in Lambunao town, Iloilo in which an Army soldier was killed.
The Left-leaning organization slammed Forro’s arrest.
“The PNP and AFP are notorious for bringing trumped-up charges against activists based on false testimony and planted evidence. The Army’s claims are patently false, ridiculous, and nothing more than an attempt to suppress dissent and silence activists,” Bayan-Panay said in a statement.
The group claimed that Forro was not in Lambunao and was in another place as part of a medical mission for the urban poor.
Forro was temporarily released days before the commemoration of International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.