A COURT in Lucena City court has sentenced a member of the progressive women’s group Gabriela to reclusion perpetua (up to 30 years of imprisonment) for possession of a hand grenade.
Alexandrea Pacalda, who was arrested in 2019, has been tagged by the military as a member of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, but leftist groups say she is a human rights defender,
The military’s Southern Luzon Command (Solcom) said Pacalda was also handed an additional eight years of imprisonment for possession of a cal. 38 revolver.
Solcom spokesman Col. Dennis Caña said the Lucena City Regional Trial Court Branch 56 handed the verdict on Wednesday.
Pacalda was a student of the MS Enverga University Lucena City. She was nabbed by Army soldiers in Quezon in September 2019 during a military operation against the NPA. Seized from her was a hand grenade and a cal. 38 pistol. She initially expressed her desire to cooperate and avail herself of the government’s “Balik Loob” program and signed an affidavit in the presence of local government officials. Pacalda recanted her affidavit after members of the human rights group Karapatan-Southern Luzon visited her. This prompted authorities to pursue criminal charges against her.
