NATIONAL Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) director general, Alex Paul Monteagudo, condemned some quarters of the mainstream media for describing one of the suspects in the assassination of US Army intelligence official, Col. James Rowe in 1989, as a “political prisoner.”
“There are no political prisoners in the Philippines,” Monteagudo pointed out, referring to mainstream media’s report on the release of Juanito ‘Nitoy’ Itaas on order of the court.
“Itaas is a convicted murderer of US Army Colonel Rowe. The court sentenced him for a crime of murder,” Monteagudo pointed out.
The highly-respected former police general was debunking the news report of CNN Philippines on January 8, 2022, whose report stated: “Juanito Itaas, the country’s longest held political prisoner, has been released from prison after spending over 32 years behind bars.”
The headline of the article also claimed, “Longest held political prisoner in PH freed.”
The anti-government online news site, ‘Rappler,’ for its part, on Sunday, January 9, 2022, bannered its story of Itaas’ release as, ‘PH’s longest detained activist Juanito Itaas walks free.’
The description of Itaas, now 57, as a ‘political prisoner’ or ‘activist’ was also carried out by the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) in a much earlier article last December 22, 2021 (‘Ordered release after 32 years, but…”) and by the group, ‘Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines’ (CHRP)—which quoted its article from Rappler.
It can be deduced from its website that CHRP is active in soliciting support from Europe, particularly in Great Britain. It has been doing so since it was founded in 2006.
Also, by its own admission, CHRP has managed to form in Europe last January 22, 2021, an ‘International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines’ (ICHRP).
The strength of CPP-NPA narrative
Based on available records, Itaas was arrested in Davao City on August 27, 1989, some 4 months after the assassination of Rowe in Quezon City on April 21, 1989.
Rowe was killed by the elite, ‘Special Operations Group’ (SOG) of the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Itaas was convicted in 1991 along with Danilo Continente, then a student activist at the University of the Philippines and member of the ‘Philippine Collegian,’ for the murder of Rowe, who, at the time, was the main US Army intelligence liaison with the Philippine military.
Continente was release after fully-serving his jail sentence in 2005. At the time of his release, he was also described not as a convicted killer but as a mere political ‘activist.’
Itaas, meanwhile, was left behind after being found as one of the “principals” in the assassination. His conviction as a murderer was upheld by the Supreme Court back in 2000, which also sentenced him to ‘reclusion perpetua.’
Since then, CPP front groups claiming to be ‘human rights organizations’ such as ‘Karapatan,’ ‘Kapatid,’ ‘Selda,’ TFDP (Task Force Detainees of the Philippines) and now, CHRP, have carried out a relentless and sustained campaign to promote the image of Continente and Itaas as ‘political prisoners’ and plain ‘activists’ to bury the fact that they took part in the murder of a foreign military official.
In mainstream media’s reports on the actual release of Itaas on court order last January 7, 2022, they quoted heavily on the press statement of Kapatid.
‘They have nothing to do with it’
Before he went missing in May 2006, Philip ‘Ka Ador’ Limjuco, head of the SOG, told this writer that while Continente and Itaas are part of their “support group” in Metro Manila, they never participated in the actual assassination of Rowe that he personally supervised.
“Wala silang kinalaman dun; ang direktiba lang sa kanila ay magbigay ng mga dagdag na impormasyon,” he bared. “Trabaho namin ‘yun.”
Limjuco went on to claim that both Continente and Itaas were “sacrificed” in order to “cool down” (“palamigin”) the media hype that attended Rowe’s assassination, which was one of the most sensational operations carried out by the SOG.
Some of the most notable ‘accomplishments’ by the SOG had already appeared in a previous article here in Pinoy Exposé (see article of November 9, 2020; “NPA ‘Re-Organizing’ Its ‘SOG’—Intel Report”).