TFU PROBE SHOWS REPORT VS MILITARY IN NEGROS ORIENTAL FALSE
An investigation by the police’s Task Force Usig has shown that claims of military abuses in the city of Guihulngan in Negros Oriental are false as the victims themselves have formally filed charges pointing the finger at New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who have forced them to pay “revolutionary taxes” in cash and in kind.
A report by the task force to Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno bared its probe had shown that allegations that the victims have abruptly disappeared because of the military were false, as they themselves had approached officials of the Philippine Army in the province to seek help and protection from NPA abuses in their village.
Citing the report, DILG Assistant Secretary Danilo Valero said that NPA victims Pio and Magdalena Mata, Bernabe and Elizabeth Bahinting, Genaro Ferolino and Regie Erojo, who are all residents of Barangay Linantuyan in Guihulngan City, have all executed formal affidavits accusing the NPA of grave coercion, and that members of the 11th Infantry Battalion led by 1st Lt. Joseph Buencamino, upon the victims’ request, had even accompanied them in filing their respective complaints before the police.
The victims had accused NPA members Lourdes Baloy, Renie Carillo, Jallen Carillo, and three other still unidentified persons of forcing them to give cash and corn grits as their contribution to the communist underground in their village.
These complainants said these armed NPA members had approached them on various occasions to demand corn grits and money each from residents of their village to help sustain the communist group’s revolutionary activities.
Most of the victims further stated in their affidavits that they were left with no choice but to comply with these demands, out of fear that they and their families would be harmed or killed by the NPA.
Besides these testimonies, brothers Francisco and Justo Sardanas, who are both residents of Barangay Linantuyan, also denied the allegations made by one claiming to be Sara Alvarez, who was interviewed over radio station DYHP in Cebu City , in which she accused the military of burning houses, kidnapping residents in their village and other abuses.
Both Franciso and Justo Sardanas “firmly and strongly stated” that the allegations by Alvarez were false and baseless, the report noted.
Earlier, Task Force Usig also reported to the DILG the latest conviction in the cases of political slayings with the guilty verdict handed down by the court against the suspect in the 2006 murder of a Bayan Muna leader in Pangasinan.
Task Force Usig said that Joel Flores, the main suspect in the killing of Bayan Muna-TIMMAWA president Jose Doton, has been meted a sentence of reclusion perpetua, which entails imprisonment of at least 30 years, by Judge Ulysses Butuyan of the Regional Trial Court in Tayug, Pangasinan.
The judge had also imposed an indeterminate penalty of 10 years and one day to 14 years, 8 months and one day against Flores for the crime of frustrated murder in connection with the wounding of Doton’s brother Diosdado, who was with the murder victim when he was attacked on May 16, 2006 .
Flores was also ordered to pay as indemnification for liquidated damages to the family of Jose Doton in the amount of P500,000, and to Diosdado Doton, the amount of P200,000.
Task Force Usig had earlier reported four convictions in the cases involving the unexplained killings in the country, said Valero, who is assistant secretary for public order and local government.
Police Officer 1 Guillermo Wapile was dismissed from the police service and is currently serving sentence for the 2002 killing of journalist Edgar Damalerio.
Jerry Cabayag, Randy Grecia and Estanislao Bismanos were convicted for the killing of journalist Marlene Esperat. The masterminds in this case—Osmena Montaner and Estrella Sabay—remain at large and have standing warrants of arrest issued by the court against them.
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Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:31 pm