Promotion of Major General Jorge Segovia opposed | Sun.Star.

April 13, 2012

MANILA — Human rights groups chided President Benigno Aquino III for designating Major General Jorge Segovia as head of the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command even if he was blamed for the illegal detention of health workers in Rizal in 2010.

Collectively known as Morong 43, these health workers were suspected as communist rebels after they were reportedly caught in possession of bomb-making chemicals during the February 6, 2010 raid in Morong, Rizal.

Despite criticisms, Segovia defended the legitimacy of the arrest but mounting pressure on President Benigno Aquino III pushed him to order the withdrawal of cases before the courts in December that same year.

Segovia, who previously headed the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division in Tanay, Rizal, is one of the respondents to the P15-million damage suit filed by the Morong 43 for their illegal arrest, detention and torture under the last few months of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

He is also among the “missing” respondents who have yet to be served the court summons several months after such were issued by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court. The court server supposedly cannot locate the whereabouts of Segovia.

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