HUMAN RIGHTS  WATCH

9 Villagers Taken Hostage by Troops in Samar
Three farmers executed – one of them inside a chapel

Officials of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Eastern Samar provincial council last week denounced the military for coercing nine civilians to guide troops in their counter-insurgency operations in Samar. They said the incidents violated international law.

By Maureen Japzon
Bulatlat

TACLOBAN CITY – Officials of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Eastern Samar provincial council last week denounced the military for coercing nine civilians to guide troops in their counter-insurgency operations in Samar. They said the incidents violated international law.

The denunciation was issued in the wake of complaints by the victim’s families and human rights groups that the nine were abducted at gunpoint and were forced to escort soldiers who claimed to be in pursuit of New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas. One of the nine has been reported missing.

Government forces were also accused of killing three farmers who were suspected of having links to the NPA.

Lawyer Paquito Nacino, the regional director of CHR, said in a radio interview on July 20: “Diri dapat suguon han sundalo an mga parag-uma paggiya, kay ginsuswelduhan an sundalo para pamiling han NPA”  (The soldiers should not compel farmers to guide them [in operations], because they are being paid to pursue the NPA).

 Nacino described the incident as a violation of the international humanitarian law particularly Protocol 2 of the Geneva Convention which governs armed conflict including that between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. The communist-led NPA is a component of the NDF.

The first report of abduction was that of Liberato “Embo” Recab, 20, a farmer from Sitio (subvillage) Tar-as, Barangay (village) San Miguel, in the town of Jiabong, Western Samar. A witness and Recab’s own uncle, Feliciano Paclita, told Bulatlat that on June 9 at around 9 a.m., about 70 soldiers from the Alpha Company, 34th IB came to Tar-as and encircled his house. Recab, who was with the soldiers, he looked pale and frightened, Paclita said.

Some of the soldiers asked Paclita if he saw a group of armed men pass by and he said no.

As the soldiers were about to leave, they pulled Recab along. But Feliciano and his wife, Linda Jabinar, pleaded to the soldiers to leave their nephew behind as he had to farm. The soldiers ignored the couple’s appeal.

After 10 minutes, Feliciano said, three of the soldiers came back to fetch him. Against his protests, he said, the three soldiers pushed him to move. After a hike of almost two hours, he heard automatic gunfire coming from a hill. He said he just sat on the ground as the three soldiers who took him dashed toward the scene of shooting. He took the chance to escape.

Missing

Feliciano told Bulatlat that he’s worried that his nephew has been missing. Reports received by a human rights watch in Eastern Samar, KATUNGOD, showed that Recab could be still in the hands of the soldiers two of whom were identified by villagers as a Lt. Pensona and Sgt. De Guzman. He was being used as a civilian guide and as a human shield in the Army company’s military operations, it was reported.

In another incident on July 4, Artemio Lazarra, 32, and his three children, were also taken by soldiers of the 34th IB and the 7th Scout Rangers Company. Lazarra, a farmer and barangay tanod (village security) from Sto Niño, in the town of Motiong, also Western Samar, narrated to Bulatlat his ordeal:

It was around 10 a.m. on July 4 – a Sunday – when soldiers who wore no nametags came to his farm and ordered him to guide them to Sto. Niño. Despite his work, he said, he was compelled to guide them out of fear: The soldiers were heavily armed. He called his children, 14-year-old Josephine, Jocelyn, 10, and Jonathan, 9, as he did not want to leave them in the farm.

Hiking a short distance, Lazarra saw more Army soldiers in battle formation. Reaching the junction leading to Sto. Niño, the soldiers advanced toward the forest. Afraid that he would be forced to escort them to the forest, Lazarra said he asked the soldiers to let him and his children go. The soldiers refused.

Inside the forest, the soldiers stopped with some of them preparing to sleep on hammocks while others cooked food. Five soldiers asked Lazarra to guide them to the spring to fetch water. He was also ordered to carry water bottles in a sack back to where the soldiers were taking a rest.

Taken hostage, too

When the Lazarras failed to return that day, barangay officials led by Captain Leonario Gabane, Councilor Antonio Mabilog, and Tanods Edboy Mabanan and Nonoy Salingsing went looking for them. By 6 p.m., they reached the soldiers’ makeshift camp. They too were taken hostage.

At dawn the following day, the local officials along with the Lazarras were ordered by the soldiers to lead them to an NPA camp of which they knew nothing about. Later that morning, the soldiers took the hostages’ photographs. It was only on the afternoon that day when the civilians were all allowed to go home.

There were also reports of families displaced by the military operations in other villages including Barayong and. Calapi, Motiong.

In more serious cases, KATUNGOD also reported three incidents of summary executions allegedly perpetrated by elements of the Army’s 14^th IB and the paramilitary Citizens Armed Force Geographic Unit (Cafgu). Based on their investigation, the human rights watch’s Charlie Campos and Mirasol Catuday said that on June 12, Freddie Rebato, a 33-year-old farmer, married with six children living in Barangay Tugas, Maslog, Eastern Samar was found dead. When found, his arms were stretched out and his hands bound to trees. His body bore several wounds including a stab wound in the back. His skull was shattered.

The military suspected Rebato as an NPA member.

Chapel execution?

Another farmer was executed, also allegedly by soldiers from the 14^th IB. The body of Rogelio Nurcio, 32, of Barangay Tangbo, also in Maslog, was found in a state of decomposition inside the village chapel on July 2. Apparently the perpetrators used the victim’s own machete in hacking him and gouging his eyes. There were also several bullet wounds all over his body including his temple.

Villagers, who had deserted the village because of a military operation, said Nurcio could have been killed because the military suspected his son to be an NPA member. KATUNGOD also reported incidents of looting apparently committed in the middle of the military operation in Tangbo.

A third farmer, Bernardo Amado, of Sitio Bay-nag, Barangay Can-ilay, in Cav-avid, Eastern Samar was also reportedly executed on July 4 allegedly by soldiers of Charlie Company, 14^th IB which is based in Simantang. Amado, who the human rights group said had a minor mental impairment, was killed when he failed to answer soldiers’ questions. He was also suspected as an NPA member.

The head of the Charlie Company was identified as 2Lt. Arbern Ronnel DM Abiva.

Acting on the reports of the abductions and extra-judicial executions, the regional CHR held an investigation on July 6.

Resolution

The Eastern Samar Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial council) led by Concepcion de Luna, chair of the council’s committee on human rights, also passed a resolution condemning the incidents. The council also said the incidents violated the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights – International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) of the government and NDFP.

The provincial officials also urged the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators.

On July 16, complaints of Feliciano Paclita and Zosimo Racab of abduction and enforced disappearance were brought by KATUNGOD to the NDF Nominated Section of the Joint Monitoring Committee on CARHRIHL in Quezon City for proper action.

Alex Lagunzad, secretary general of KATUNGOD-SB, called the series of incidents victimizing civilians during military operations in the region as “alarming.” “This is the outcome of the implementation of “Oplan Kalinaw Bisayas,” the current counter-insurgency campaign of the 8th Infantry Division and the Central Command (CentCom) of the Philippine Army,” he added.

CentCom based in Cebu City takes operational control over all units of the government troops in Eastern Visayas. Bulatlat

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