LA TRINIDAD, Benguet—The 11 backpackers whom police said were among the suspected communist rebels who raided an Army detachment in Mankayan town in February filed charges against the police for allegedly violating their rights when they were arrested without warrants.

The group, called “Punks 11” by human rights lawyers here, filed the complaint on Friday before the Benguet prosecutor’s office.

They said the six policemen who arrested them on Feb. 14 while they were on their way to Sagada, Mt. Province failed to show them arrest warrants.

The lawyers of the backpackers said the policemen were accused of violating the suspects’ rights under Republic Act No. 7438, the law defining the rights of persons arrested, detained or taken under custodial investigation.

The suspects earlier complained that policemen beat them up after their arrest but Benguet police officials belied the claim.

Named in the complaint were Supt. Brent Madjaco, Senior Insp. Joseph Paulo

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Bayongasan, SPO1 Alyson Kalang-ad, PO2 Jonathan Pucya, PO2 Wendell Baglao and PO2 James Ayan Jr.

Senior Supt. Villamor Bumanglag, Benguet police director, said they believed that the suspects were among the group of New People’s Army rebels who raided the Mankayan detachment.

“There is nothing to say because the case is already in court. But we stand by [our] belief that they were the ones who raided the detachment,” Bumanglag said in a telephone interview.

In a preliminary hearing on Thursday at the regional trial court here, police said they stopped the dump truck, where the 11 backpackers hitched a ride, in a checkpoint in Buguias town.

Lawyer Randy Kinaud, one of the backpackers’ lawyers, said the police told the backpackers that they had the right to remain silent and the right to be represented by a lawyer.

But Kinaud said the police violated the law when they questioned the backpackers without the presence of their lawyers.

Last week, lawyer Pablito Sanidad of the Free Legal Assistance Group and officials of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance asked Judge Benigno Galacgac to dismiss the robbery with homicide charges filed against the suspects.

The charges were related to the death of two soldiers and a militiaman and the seizure of at least 23 firearms during the raid. Desiree Caluza, PDI Northern Luzon Bureau