Bulatlat - The Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine

This story was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 4, Feb. 25-March 3, 2007

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

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

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