Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts

Issue No. 29                        September 2-8,  2001                    Quezon City, Philippines

AFP Victim was Innocent Villager, Not NPA Rebel

BY BULATLAT.COM / NORTHERN DISPATCH

BONTOC, Mt. Province --- The 22nd Special Forces Company of the Philippine Army (PA) has a lot of explaining to do. Indigenous villagers of Betwagan in Sadanga municipality of this province disputed its claim of having killed at least one New People's Army (NPA) rebel in a supposedly legitimate encounter on August 9 or 10.

Betwagan residents and Cordillera human rights advocates yesterday insisted that the slain man, Johnny Kamareg, was not an NPA rebel but a 55-year old farmer who had merely gone to the fields to check on his grazing animals and harvest palay for his family. They also confirmed that, contrary to the claim of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), there was no clash that day between the military and the NPA in Betwagan.

Kamareg's family and some villagers found his body - already smelling foul – last August 11, two days after he failed to come home, in an irrigation canal a short distance away. His killers reportedly dragged his body over the rough ground and hid it under a thick layer of leaves in an attempt to prevent their crime from being discovered.

Kamareg reportedly died from five gunshot wounds - four in his pelvic area including the penis, and one dead-center in his forehead. Betwagan villagers said they have reason to suspect that the army unit led by a certain Sgt. Benhamin Dasalla killed their village-mate in cold blood.

The Cordillera Human Rights Organization (CHRO) and the Cordillera Indigenous Peoples Law Center (DINTEG) denounced the AFP for the "dastardly act" and for spreading "false reports" in the mass media.

CHRO-Dinteg spokesperson Beverly Longid said that, contrary to AFP claims of an encounter with NPA guerrillas, the truth was that the company-sized SF unit went to Betwagan for regular counter-insurgency operations but found no NPA to shoot at.

CHRO-Dinteg, with the help of Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) Mt. Province, complied a fact sheet on the incident. It says that on August 9 the soldiers set up base in a locality named Tigil, which is the main entrance to Betwagan coming from the Bontoc-Sadanga road.

The SF troops reportedly divided into three groups going into Betwagan: one group passed through Lias barrio in neighboring Barlig town, another group passed through the Barlig poblacion (town center), and the third group passed through Anabel, a satellite barrio of Betwagan.

As reported, the soldiers based in Tigil indiscriminately fired their guns at Betwagan residents coming home from Bontoc. To ensure their safety, villagers going home to Betwagan took the alternate route via Anabel instead of the usual path through Tigil. However, the other group of soldiers also fired at the villagers upon seeing them come from Anabel. Villagers also heard gunshots coming from the direction of Pusong, a nearby sitio (hamlet) of Anabel but could not check because the troops had cordoned off the area.

Later that day, Betwagan villagers realized that Kamareg had not returned home from the fields, and so began searching for him.

The people of Betwagan and Anabel also clarified that no one else was killed during that military operation. This was contrary to the report of Major Carlito Bueno of the 3rd Special Forces Battalion (as published in a local weekly) that the military killed two NPA guerillas and wounded two others during the alleged encounter.

CHRO-Dinteg's Longid emphasized that even had Kamareg been somehow linked to NPA rebels, this did not justify his killing. "The Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) forged by the government and the NDF (National Democratic Font) guarantees the rights of combatants against summary execution and the like," Longid pointed out. The CARHRIHL also guarantees the rights of civilians caught between the armed conflict.

CHRO-Dinteg called on the provincial government of Mt. Province to "take appropriate actions in bringing Kamareg's killers to justice," and demanded "the pullout of all military forces in the province."

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