No Evidence in Slay Raps Filed vs NDFP, Study Shows
The Joint Monitoring
Committee (JMC) of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP)
and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has on file 28
complaints against the GRP for extra-judicial killings. Twenty-three of
these cases have corresponding complaints filed against the NDFP. There is
no evidence in most of the corresponding complaints filed against the NDFP,
a study shows.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN
REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Manuela and Expedito
Albarillo
The Joint Monitoring
Committee (JMC) of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP)
and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has on file 28
complaints against the GRP for extra-judicial killings. Twenty-three of
these cases have corresponding complaints filed against the NDFP.
The cases with
complaints filed against both the GRP and the NDFP are those of:
Juan Aguilar, Jr.,
killed Aug. 25, 2002 in Sorsogon; Expedito and Manuela Albarillo, killed
April 8, 2002 in Oriental Mindoro; Rommel Arcilla, killed Nov. 20, 2005 in
Pampanga; Nestor Arinque, killed March 7, 2006 in Bohol; Ernesto Atento,
killed Feb. 26, 2003 in Albay; Ricardo Balauag and Elena Mendiola, killed
May 10, 2006 in Isabela; Madonna Castillo, killed July 20, 2006 in Isabela;
Eddie Dimaano, killed May 20, 2005 in Camarines Sur; Renato Espino, killed
Feb. 18, 2005 in Pampanga; Eugenio Furog, killed June 13, 2004 in Bohol;
Francisco Gatdula, killed Dec. 24, 2004 in Occidental Mindoro; Victorina
Gomez and Romeo Atienza, killed Dec. 15, 2005 in Pampanga; Arnel Cudia
Guevarra, killed July 21, 2006 in Pampanga;
Luis Lacsa, killed
Feb. 23, 2002 in Albay; Sotero Llamas, killed May 29, 2006 in Albay;
Manuel Nardo, killed May 15, 2006 in Pampanga; Sotero Nasol, killed Dec.
14, 2002 in Albay; Teodoro Segui, Jr., killed April 12, 2002 in Albay; Abe
Sungit, killed Feb. 5, 2005 in Palawan; Albino Takadao, killed Feb. 3,
2006 in Cotabato; Rev. Jemias Tinambacan, killed May 9, 2006 in Misamis
Occidental; and Ricardo “Ding” Uy, killed Nov. 18, 2005 in Sorsogon City.
Eighteen of the
corresponding complaints filed against the NDFP are not accompanied by
evidence nor sufficient data. Of these, 13 do not even contain
descriptions of the incidents.
These were among the
findings contained in a study by the NDFP Monitoring Committee and the
NDFP-Nominated Section of the JMC Joint Secretariat, which was presented
to media in a press briefing in Quezon City last Feb. 19.
The cases are among
834 extra-judicial killings documented by Karapatan (Alliance for the
Advancement of People’s Rights) since 2001, when President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo was catapulted to power through a popular uprising. At
least 340 of the victims of these killings are confirmed to have been
affiliated with cause-oriented groups.
In a recent speech,
Arroyo has alluded to investigations which she described as pointing to
both soldiers and communist guerrillas as the “perpetrators” of the
killings.
“Investigations
suggest links to both right and left – to communists, communist rebels as
well as possibly elements of our own military. The investigations of the
national police’s Task Force Usig have unearthed some interesting facts
such as 23 cases of killings perpetrated by the NPA (New People’s Army)
against their own men, the discrepancy between the number of cases
reported by the front organizations of the communists and the numbers in
the police files, and two cases where the supposed victims were confirmed
to be alive. It’s disheartening to contemplate that anyone upholding
people’s rights could engage in such deeds. I need to absorb fully what it
means.”
Arroyo was referring
to investigations conducted by the Task Force Usig of the Philippine
National Police (PNP) and the Melo Commission. Both bodies were formed
last year purportedly to investigate the killings of activist leaders as
well as those of journalists.
Task Force Usig has
reported only 115 extra-judicial killings as having taken place since
2001. It has blamed five of the killings on NDFP forces.
The five killings
blamed by Task Force Usig on NDFP forces, however, are not included in the
23 cases filed against the NDFP before the JMC. One of these killings
mentioned by Task Force Usig as having been committed by the NDFP is that
of Hermelito Marqueza who was killed August 20, 2006. Marqueza’s wife,
said the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace, testified before UN
Special Rapporteur Philip Alston that her husband was shot 47 times by the
military while sleeping at their home beside her and their children. This
case was described by Alston, in a press conference, to illustrate his
conclusion that the military committed extra judicial executions.
Illustrative cases
Edre Olalia, legal
counsel of the NDFP-Nominated Section of the JMC Joint Secretariat,
discussed two of these complaints, which he described as “illustrative
cases,” during the press briefing.
The first case
discussed by Olalia was that of Nestor Arinque, a Protestant lay preacher
and peasant leader killed in Bohol at around 12 nn on March 7, 2006.
For this case, the
complaint against the GRP was filed on April 10, 2006 by the human rights
group Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace (EMJP), while that against
the NDFP was lodged by a Maj. Agustin Matavia of the Central Command,
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Nov. 8, 2006.
The complaint filed
against the GRP was accompanied by a Karapatan urgent action statement
dated March 14, 2006; an urgent action by the Asian Human Rights
Commission (AHRC) dated March 22, 2006; and a Karapatan-Bohol
Investigative Mission Report. Included as annexes to the Karapatan-Bohol
Investigatative Mission Report were a March 20, 2006 affidavit by
Arinque’s wife Josefina; a fact sheet dated March 10, 2006; a March 13,
2006 statement by Karapatan-Bohol; Arinque’s death certificate dated March
23, 2006; pictures of Arinque, news clippings, and a copy of an e-mail
fact-finding report dated March 15, 2006.
The corresponding
complaint filed against the NDFP for the same case, on the other hand, had
no supporting documents at all. It merely contained a one-liner stating
that: “Arinque, a communist terrorist member, was shot to death by the CTs.”
The second case
Olalia discussed was that of Eddie Dimaano, a coordinator of the
progressive party-list group Bayan Muna (People First) in Camarines Sur
who was killed at around 7 p.m. on May 20, 2005.
The complaint against
the GRP for this case was filed by EMJP-Bicol on Feb. 8, 2006, and
included a Karapatan-Camarines Sur fact sheet, while the corresponding
complaint filed against the NDFP was lodged by Insp. Danilo Bagacina,
officer-in-charge of the municipal police station in Sagmay, Camarines Sur
and included an Oct. 21, 2006 certification of police blotter; a May 24,
2005 memorandum on police investigation report; a criminal complaint for
murder against Salvador Bulalacao dated Sept. 11, 2006; and the affidavit
of one Fernando Renosa dated Sept. 12, 2006.
“On or about 8:30 pm,
20 May 2005, team lead by SPO2 Manuel Orjalo Medina PNP member this
station responded on a reported shooting incident that occurred at Zone 5,
Barangay Tambo, this Municipality and upon returning they reported that
the person of one Leonides Dimaano y Novelo, 47 years old, married,
resident of same place had been shot. Victim suffered multiple gunshot
wounds to the different parts of his body and seven (7) empty shells of
Cal M16 rifle were recovered at the crime scene by responding policemen of
this station,” reads the allegation in the complaint filed against the
NDFP. “Suspects were unidentified and fled afterwards to unknown
direction.”
“Note also that the
affidavit of Renosa is dated Sept. 12, 2006 or a day after the complaint
against alleged NPA rebel Salvador Bulalacao was filed,” Olalia said.
“This means that they filed the case against Bulalacao even without
evidence.”
Debunked
“The study proves
very concretely that the GRP has been conducting extra-judicial killings,
and worse, blaming these killings on the NDFP,” said Utrecht-based NDFP
Human Rights Committee chairman Fidel Agcaoili in a phone-patch interview
that was part of the Feb. 19 press briefing.
The angle of the
killings having been perpetrated allegedly as part of a “purge within the
communist ranks” has been debunked in separate statements by Phillip
Alston, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)
on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions; and retired Supreme
Court Justice Jose Melo, who heads the Melo Commission.
Said Alston in his
Feb. 21 press statement:
“The theory that the
‘correct, accurate, and truthful’ reason for the recent rise in killings
lies in purges committed by the CPP/NPA (Communist Party of the
Philippines/New People’s Army). This theory was relentlessly pushed by the
AFP and many of my government interlocutors. But we must distinguish the
number of 1,227 cited by the military from the limited number of cases in
which the CPP/NPA have acknowledged, indeed boasted, of killings. While
such cases have certainly occurred, even those most concerned about them,
such as members of Akbayan, have suggested to me that they could not
amount to even 10 percent of the total killings.
”The evidence offered by the military in support of this theory is
especially unconvincing. Human rights organizations have documented very
few such cases. The AFP relies instead on figures and trends relating to
the purges of the late 1980s, and on an alleged CPP/NPA document captured
in May 2006 describing Operation Bushfire. In the absence of much stronger
supporting evidence this particular document bears all the hallmarks of a
fabrication and cannot be taken as evidence of anything other than
disinformation.”
Melo, meanwhile, said
in a televised interview on Feb. 23 that the military failed to support
the theory that the killings were part of a “purge within communist
ranks.”
Even before coming
out with his report, Alston had been accused by Justice Secretary Raul
Gonzalez of having been “brainwashed by the Left.” Retired Army Maj. Gen.
Jovito Palparan, Jr., whose name has figured prominently in several
notorious cases of human rights violations, has accused the Melo
Commission of having been “infiltrated by communists.” Bulatlat
BACK TO
TOP ■
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION ■
COMMENT
© 2007 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided
its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.