The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) vehemently condemns the Ferdinand Marcos Jr government, as represented by its Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), for appealing the release from detention of a victim of mistaken identity of the government’s counter-insurgency drive.

The government is showing its incapacity to admit and learn from its mistakes, its support for state security forces’ insatiable bounty-hunting, and its plain cruelty and disrespect for human rights when the OSG filed its June 30 motion for reconsideration for the re-arrest of Mr. Prudencio Cebu Calubid Jr.

Mr. Prudencio Cebu Calubid Jr, the former technician, life-long resident of Olongapo City, and one-time Overseas Filipino Worker in Saudi Arabia, is simply not Mr. Prudencio Calubid, peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) who has been a desaperacido since 2006.

Mr. Calubid Jr, or “Tatay Pruding,” had already been detained for six months, an injustice for which the government should indemnify him. Despite their bold claim of conducting intensive intelligence work to prove that the two Calubids are one, state security forces are clutching at straws in arguing Mr. Calubid’s Facebook photos show that he looks like the NDFP consultant.

The whole saga of Mr. Calubid Jr would have been hilarious if only it is not so tragic and revolting. Mr. Calubid Jr is already 81 years old and suffers from chronic kidney disease, arthritis and gout. He should be enjoying his life and should be spared from the stress and degradation of arrest and detention.

Mr Calubid Jr’s case also further exposes the brutality of the government’s counter-insurgency program. The NDFP consultant is already a desaperacido, a victim of gross human rights violation, yet he has been “resuscitated” by state forces for the P7.8 million bounty on his head.

We cite the Court of Appeals’ ruling that criticized the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) for failing to “conduct even basic verification within the very community where Prudencio Jr. had resided for several years.” The OSG chooses to ignore the voluminous evidence that were presented by Mr Calubid Jr’s family to prove his identity.

Workers and Filipinos are calling for accountability for the various crimes committed by Vice President Sara Duterte and by the military and the police. The Marcos Jr government is displaying its unacceptably distorted priorities in going after an innocent, old, and ailing man.