This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 4, March 1, 2006
BY
Posted
4:30 p.m. March 1, 2006
The six farmers
accused of killing brothers Michael and Paul Quintos – sons of a local landlord
in Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro – on Dec. 13, 1997 were meted out the death
penalty this morning in an 80-page decision by Judge Teresita Yadao of Branch
81, Quezon City Regional Trial Court.
Manolito Matricio,
Eduardo Hermoso, Mario Tobias, Josue Ungsod, Ruel Bautista, and Ruben Balaguer –
who had been charged together with Mamburao local politician Jose Villarosa, a
known political opponent of the victims’ father Ricardo – were all meted the
maximum penalty of death even as the Lucio de Guzman Command of the clandestine
New People’s Army (NPA) had earlier admitted to the killing. Meanwhile,
Villarosa has yet to be sentenced.
In an interview with
Bulatlat, lawyer Edre Olalia, counsel for three of the accused, said the
farmers – who were locked in a land dispute with Quintos – ended up as
“sacrificial lambs” in a battle between their accuser and Villarosa.
“They could not have
been the killers of the Quintos brothers,” Olalia added. “Aside from the NPA’s
public admission of the killing, there are also witnesses testimonies pointing
to the perpetrators as all young men. We can see that the ‘Mamburao 6’ are all
middle-aged.”
In a separate phone
interview, with Bulatlat, Danilo Ramos – chairman of the Kilusang
Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Philippine Peasant Movement) of which the six
are all members – hit Yadao for relying too much on the testimony of Hermoso –
who, he said, had been “tortured by the goons of Quintos.” Likewise, he scored
Yadao for giving “too much credence” to the testimonies of six procesucution
witnesses whom
he described as “paid hacks” of Quintos.
“Without these
testimonies, the case would collapse,” Ramos said.
Ramos also said that
their organization plans to contest Yadao’s decision before the Court of Appeals
and, if need be, the Supreme Court. “We will definitely fight this out,” Ramos
said. “We will exhaust all legal, paralegal and meta-legal means to secure their
freedom.” Bulatlat © 2006 Bulatlat
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