PALACE VOWS INVESTIGATION OF CALABARZON KILLINGS
MALACAÑANG has vowed to investigate the killing of nine persons suspected to be communist rebels in separate police operations in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon (Calabarzon) last Sunday.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. on Monday said the killings would be investigated because the victims were unarmed.
The human rights group Karapatan identified five of the nine fatalities and three of the six people arrested during the police operations.
The five were Emmanuel Asuncion, coordinator of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Cavite chapter; Chai Lemita-Evangelista and Ariel Evangelista, a couple who were leaders of a fisherfolk organization; and urban poor group Sikkad Montalban members Melvin Dasigao and Mark Lee Coros Bacasno.
Karapatan said among those arrested were Esteban Mendoza, vice president of Olalia-Kilusang Mayo Uno; Elizabeth Camoral, BayanLaguna spokesperson; and Nimfa Lanzanas, Karapatan’s paralegal to political prisoners.
The incident, which human rights organizations are calling “Bloody Sunday,” happened days after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the military to shoot to kill armed communist rebels.
Roque defended the President’s order, saying it was legal because the government was at war with communist insurgents.
He said the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) can conduct its own investigation into the killings.
He made it clear that government agencies were not compelled to cooperate with the CHR because they have their own investigations, as well.
The Department of Justice-led task force on extrajudicial killings will investigate the incident.
During a briefing in Camp Crame on Monday, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Debold Sinas defended the simultaneous operations in Calabarzon as “legitimate because they are covered by search warrants.”
The warrants authorized the police to search the places where the slain and arrested personalities were staying for illegal firearms and explosives, Sinas said.
He acknowledged that “only some” of the individuals covered by the warrants had pending court cases.
Later in the day, PNP spokesman BGen. Ildebrandi Usana downplayed criticisms of the operations.
“That’s the mission of the PNP, and we don’t mind those criticizing the efforts of our police officers who are just doing their job to serve and protect the people,” Usana said.
He noted that serving the warrants requires the presence of two witnesses and that the police “simply responded to the call of our communities to be protected from individual persons found with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.”
He dared critics to bring their concerns to court, “otherwise, their claim of questioning the legitimacy of police operations is, as usual, left in emptiness.”
Human rights groups, including the New York-based Human Rights Watch, condemned the killings, saying it was no coincidence that they took place shortly after the President’s “shoot and kill” order.
Sen. Ana Theresia Hontiveros asked the Human Rights commission to investigate the killings.
Hontiveros and fellow Senators Mary Grace Poe and Francis Pangilinan voiced concern over what they said were a violent crackdown of activists in Calabarzon.
Pangilinan said that to prevent such “obvious disregard for human life,” the PNP must use the body cameras that it purchased for P289 million in 2019.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said that “when the Commander-in-Chief barks out an order, the commanders of the troops must dish out clear guidelines on how to carry out such anti-insurgency operations to make sure that they target only the armed combatants.”
“It goes without saying that the only legal justification to kill an adversary is in defense of oneself or another person,” Lacson said.
He cautioned that “it may not be proper to make premature conclusions and claims about the Calabarzon raids at this time, lest they affect the conduct of official investigations by the appropriate agencies.”