BY VICTOR REYES
THE military yesterday belied allegations
that Army custodians are subjecting to mental torture three
junior officers linked to power grabs by keeping them in
solitary confinement.
Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, Army chief, said
Army detention cells at the headquarters in Fort Bonifacio
passed standards of the International Red Cross.
The allegations were made Thursday by the
wives of 1Lts. Sonny Sarmiento and Aldrin Baldonado who also
said their husbands are now thinner and weak because of limited
food servings.
Sources said a third officer, Capt. Dante
Langkit, is also being subjected to mental torture.
Sarmiento and Baldonado are detained because
of their participation in the Oakwood mutiny in July 2003. They
were also implicated in a supposed plan to occupy the Batasan
complex on July 24 last year while President Arroyo was
delivering her State-of-the-Nation Address.
Langkit is being linked to the failed power
grab in February last year.
The three officers are reportedly in solitary
confinement.
"We have not sent anyone to solitary
confinement. Actually, our detention cells have been inspected
by the International Red Cross.
These pass Red Cross standards," Tolentino
said in an interview after a call by military officers on
President Arroyo and AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr.
Tolentino also belied allegations the Army is
mentally torturing the alleged coup plotters to force them to
sign affidavits that link a number of people, including leaders
of the political opposition, to destabilization moves.
"No, you cannot do that. Things like that
should be voluntary because if you get a state witness, you
(witness) will still be asked by the court. What if he retracts?
That is an embarrassment for us," he said.
Venus Sarmiento and Wilma Baldonado appealed to the military
to transfer their husbands to better cells.
