‘Missing’ ex-UN official’s sis found in Baguio after chopper flies her off

This handout photo from June 11, 2020 shows Annie Tauli,  70-year-old alleged CPP official who has met with top security officials, comes out to clear name

‘CPP-NPA’ exec denies army’s allegations 

BESAO, Mountain Province - A 70-year-old resident of this town and sister of a former United Nations rapporteur, tagged by authorities as a top official of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army, was “picked up” by army officers, brought in a military helicopter morning of June 11 and has not returned home here since then, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) said Thursday.

Relatives of Anne Tauli reported that day she was taken to an unknown location by the chopper with two other women elders who opted to accompany her to ensure her safety.

She was later found out a day later to have been taken by the military to Baguio City.

A Facebook post showed her with a military official denying any involvement with the CPP-NPA.

Tauli is the older sister of Victoria Tauli Corpuz, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples who was on the list of more than 600 people, mostly human rights and non-government organization workers the Department of Justice sought to tag as terrorists in 2018.

Corpuz, along with around 10 other people in Baguio City was later cleared by a court.

According to the military, Tauli, allegedly the chairperson of the Ilocos-Cordillera Regional Party Committee of the CPP, went to authorities in Besao Thursday and was later flown to Baguio City. 

National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, Tauli's classmate at the Philippine Science High School, said he personally knew her as a decent person.

Esperon has been in Baguio since Wednesday. 

Tauli reportedly came forward to clear her name through the joint efforts of the military and police facilitated by Brig. Gen. Henry Duyaen of the Army's 503rd Infantry Brigade and Police Brig. Gen. R'win Pagkalinawan, regional police director, as well as retired Army Gen. Ramon Yog-Yog.

Esperon said Tauli will stay at the PNP Chief's cottage at the Navy Base compound.

Pagkalinawan said there is no case filed against her.

Considering these, cause-oriented and human rights groups said authorities didn’t have legal basis to detain her.

Tauli told journalists she decided to talk to Esperon after being stranded at their ancestral home in Besao since the quarantine began.

Tauli's alleged "party husband" Julius Giron, allegedly a high-ranking CPP official, was killed with Dr. Lourdes Tan Torres—or Ma. Lourdes Dineros Tangco alias Tita— also an alleged high-ranking CPP official, and a security aide at a hideout along Hamada Subdivision, Baguio City in March.

Baguio-based human rights group Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA)-Karapatan claimed Tauli was "picked up" by authorities.

As a senior citizen, (Tauli) "has long since retired and gone home to Besao, where she is the president of the Batil-ang Peypeyen Clan," said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.

Tauli was a teacher at Brent School up to 1980 and became the coordinator of the Cordillera Studies Program of the Cordillera Schools Group based in Easter School up to 1984. 

She was among more than 300 participants in the Cordillera People's Congress that founded the militant Cordillera People's Alliance in 1984.

"Besao villagers will attest that she has been very involved in local activities such as the cooperative, Parents-Teachers Association and the like," said Palabay.   

Most recently, Tauli implemented a project documenting the indigenous system of pine forest management in Besao, she added.

Joana Cariño of CPA added, “As a senior citizen, Annie has long since retired and gone home to Besao, where she is the president of the Batil-ang Peypeyen clan. Most recently, she implemented the Tuklas project on the documentation of the Batangan system of pine forest management,” Tauli was among the first batch of graduates from the Philippine Science High School, founding member of the CPA and former physics teacher.

In recent months, CPA has decried what it described as “intensifying communist and terrorist-tagging” of indigenous activists in Cordillera online and offline, stressing that red-tagging endangers their security and curtails their rights.

In a statement in April, it said that “over the past weeks, individual and group Facebook accounts of the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines and Duterte fanatics have been spreading lies about our organization.”

The CPA, had reportedly experienced “intensifying communist and terrorist-tagging” of their indigenous activities.

The organization said red-tagging potentially endangers the members’ security and diminishes their rights.

Tauli’s family, relatives and cause-oriented groups have denied her involvement with the CPP-CPA saying she was just a civic-minded person concerned with the welfare of people. (See Behind the Scenes in page 4 for more details on this issue).