Colmenares: Probe on killings should include military

FORMER Bayan Muna party-list representative Neri Colmenares challenged the investigators to also include the military in the probe on the killing of the nine farm workers in Hacienda Nene in Barangay Bulanon, Sagay City.

Colmenares said investigators should not only focus on three angles behind the massacre but four.

“The perpetrators cited were the goons of the landowner who are members of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army, the New People’s Army (NPA) and the sugar farmers who were earlier awarded the land by the owner,” he said.

Colmenares said that Brigadier General Eliezer Losañes, former commander of the 303rd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army based in Murcia town, earlier said that “bungkalan,” or communal farms, is part of the plan of the NPA.

Colmenares personally went to Sagay City Tuesday, October 23, and talked to the families of the nine victims of the massacre.

“If you have a lead and a motive, follow it. What kind of an investigation is that? That’s not a credible investigation. The magic words of the Duterte administration are intelligence reports. They attack using vague and flimsy intel reports,” Colmenares pointed out.

He also urged the church and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to conduct its own independent and impartial investigation.

“This is amid the calls of the families of the victims for true justice. Enough of the victimblaming,” he said.Colmenares said he is not representing the victims but admitted that lawyers’ group, the National Union of People’s Lawyers, will help them if they want.

“It is not the correct time to discuss as this in the time of their bereavement,” Colmenares said.

He also said that the victims want cases to be filed against the perpetrators of the crime.

“They want the suspects to be jailed, especially now that there are suspicious looking individuals following them. They fear for their lives, “Colmenares said.