E/CN.4/1995/34 page 110 unable or unwilling to answer the soldiers’ questions concerning the whereabouts of their alleged companions, they were allegedly slapped, kicked, hit in the stomach with rifle butts and had plastic placed over their heads so as to interfere with their breathing. They were then said to have been tied up for two days in the forest. 577. On 10 November 1994 the Government replied that investigations conducted by the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (PCHR) Regional Office based in San Fernando, Pampanga, established that the 76th Infantry Battalion had never been stationed in Quezon province. Investigations by the PCHR in Region IV in San Pablo City likewise yielded negative results. The PCHR was still looking for other leads for the solution of the case. 578. The Special Rapporteur by the same letter advised the Government that he had received information according to which members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU), a paramilitary force established in 1987 to fight the armed rebel movement, had engaged in torture and ill-treatment of persons in their custody. It was alleged that the military, which is charged with supervising the CAFGU, frequently tolerated or even encouraged such abuses. 579. In this connection, the Special Rapporteur transmitted the case of Emily Absalon, aged 13, who was allegedly raped on 4 July 1993 by two members of the CAFGU PNP 268th Mobile Force. The two men had gone to the victim’s house at Mindigurin, barangay Malawaan, Rizal, Mindoro Occidental, to look for her father who they alleged was a member of the NPA. They were said to have ransacked the house and taken the victim, her two sisters and a brother towards barangay Magsikap, during which time the victim was allegedly separated from her siblings and raped by both men. The children were then brought home and warned that they would be killed if they told anyone of the incident. Their mother subsequently filed a complaint with the regional trial court at San Jose. The two CAFGU members were reported to have been arrested and detained at the San Jose provincial jail in Mindoro Occidental, but the outcome of any proceedings against them was unknown. 580. The Government replied that three criminal cases of rape and robbery had been filed against two defendants who were detained at the Mindoro Occidental provincial jail and a trial was under way before branch 46 of the regional trial court in San Jose. The PCHR Regional Field Office in San Pablo, Laguna, in collaboration with the Office of the State Prosecutor, had acted as Special Prosecutor in the case. 581. Finally, the Special Rapporteur advised the Government that he had received information that Eduardo Haz and two cousins, Geby Domigina and Armando Domigina, were tortured on 4 October 1992 by two CAFGU members with the assistance of around 30 soldiers of the 49th Batallion of Bentuco, Gubat, Sorsogon. It was alleged that the pregnant wife of Eduardo Haz, Lolita Domigina Haz, was shot and killed by one of the CAFGU members at her mother’s residence at Sta. Lourdes, Barcelona, Sorsogon for alleged membership in the NPA. Some time later that day, her husband and the two cousins were reportedly seized and brought to the church and tied up. The soldiers then ordered six families occupying nearby houses to come out and watch the three

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