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.com)
