HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Soldiers Kill Farmer, Pregnant Wife in `Legitimate Encounter’

A farmer and his pregnant wife died in their sleep in the morning of September 8 but it was not due to bangungot (nightmare). Soldiers armed with M-16 rifles attacked their farm in Tagum City (Southern Mindanao) and strafed their house. In the eyes of the military, the couple died in a legitimate encounter.

BY CHERYLL D. FIEL 
Bulatlat

TAGUM CITY – The military operation last September 8 left a trail of death and destruction.

The body of Bakar Japalali, 37, was wrapped in worn-out mats inside the mosquito net. Bakar’s wife, Carmelita, who was three months pregnant, died at the hospital.

“They were asleep. They were shot while inside the mosquito net,” Talib Japalali, Bakar’s older brother, told a group of reporters who came to ask what happened.

Last September 8 at around 5 a.m., a platoon of soldiers belonging to the 404th Infantry Battalion peppered the walls of Bakar’s nipa hut with M-16 bullets in their farm in Barangay (village) Bingcunga, Tagum, Davao Norte, southern Philippines.

When asked if his brother and sister-in-law were New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas as claimed by the military, Talib posed a counter-question: Were there really rebels in their place in Barangay Bingcungan, Tagum City which is about 150 meters from the highway and very near from the Philippine National Police's (PNP) 1101st detachment?

Earlier, the military claimed that Bakar and his pregnant wife were casualties of a “legitimate encounter” with about 25 NPA guerrillas.

Eyewitness account

Rosalem Padama, 39, said they were inside the house next to the Japalalis when the soldiers arrived.  He was just about to open the door, Padama said, when he saw the soldiers already in firing position. The soldiers opened fire first at their house, he said, then turned their guns on Bakar Japalali's house.

Later, Padama heard one of the soldiers yelling orders to those in the hut to bring down their arms. “What arms? Our crab traps? All we have was a bolo. Bakar did not even own one,” Padama said.

Padama said he saw Carmelita standing near the door of her house, shouting for help. But one of the soldiers shot her, he said. By then, Carmelita's husband was already dead inside the mosquito net.

“I asked permission from one of the soldiers to rush Carmelita to the hospital,” Padama said. Carmelita died later at the hospital.

Confused

Talib could not understand why the soldiers killed his brother. Bakar had been living in their farm; he got married five months ago. “What could we have done? Why are they doing this to us when there are really no such NPA elements in the area?" Talib said.

It offends him, he said, when people ask if there were rebels in their area. “I told them that the barangay police, the members of the PNP’s 1101st, who are very near, would have known if there are rebels in the area. Even the barangay captain, the councilors. The truth is, there are no rebels in the area," Talib said.

Even the governor came by and asked him the same thing. "I told him, Governor, you can ask me all the questions you want but my brother was a good man,” Talib said.

Talib said the soldiers had told him, after the killing, that they had no choice but to kill his brother because he fought back. “Do you know of anyone who fought back an armed attack inside the mosquito net? I told them, `Where did you kill my brother? You did not kill him outside the house. You killed him while he was inside the mosquito net!’" Talib exclaimed.

Land grabbers

Talib said that the killing could be related to a land dispute with another family. This family, he said, has been claiming ownership of the Japalalis’ farm, which Talib said was inherited from his grandfather.

“We are being forced to leave our land. They can finish all of us but the fact is, we did not steal any land from anybody," Talib said. “You know the moneyed. They have all the means to step on the rights of the poor. They can use their influence to fabricate documents and use all other means to achieve their ends,” he added.

Talib has filed murder charges against soldiers of the 404th Infantry Battalion led  by a certain Sgt. Jerry Napoles and 31 others who were seen by witnesses.

Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Agane Adriatico, commander of the Civil Relations Group of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Southern Mindanao, insisted that the incident was a legitimate encounter. Everything else, Adriatico told the Davao media, is intrigue. Bulatlat

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