19th IB commanding officer says he will produce soldiers involved in Co’s killing if there is an order

From the Leyte Samar Daily Express (Dec 20): 19th IB commanding officer says he will produce soldiers involved in Co’s killing if there is an order

The leader of the soldiers who were reportedly involved in the killing of a well-knwon botanist Leonardo Co and his two companions two years ago said that he is willing to produce them as long as there is an order for him to do so. Colonel Joel Nacnac, commanding officer of the 19th Infantry Battalion based in Kananga town in Leyte, said that they would abide whatever will be the decision of the Department of Justice or the courts. “As long as there is an order coming from the DOJ or the courts for me to produce the soldiers, I will abide that order. What we just want is that a fair deliberations over the case,” Nacnac, said in a phone interview said.

It was learned from Nacnac that the soldiers accused to be responsible in the killing of Co and his two companions, Julius Borromeo and Sofronio Cortez, are still active. He said that they knew already the findings and the recommendation of the Commission on Human Rights seeking for criminal and administrative complaints be filed against them. “We will abide any order issued by the court or the DOJ .We will not hide anything,” the Army leader said.

Despite of the recommendation of the CHR, Nacnac said that they still hold on their earlier position that the three were killed during a legitimate operations by the soldiers against the members of the NPA. Co,together with his companions, were killed in the mountains in Kananga town last November 15, 2010. The group of Co was conducting a bioderversity research in the area as commissioned by the Energy Development Corp.(EDC) when the incident happened. The soldiers,led by Lt.Ronald Odchimar, claimed that they were in the area running after members of the rebel group, the New People’s Army. This ensued a firefight between the two groups. At that time of the incident, the 19th IB was headed by Col. Federico Tutaan who is now assigned in Mindanao.

This claim of the military, however, was dismissed by various human rights group saying that there was no encounter and that the three were killed by the soldiers as they were mistaken to be rebels.  Officials of the Katungod-Sinirangan Bisayas, a human rights group based in the city, found the recommendation of the CHR rather slow considering that the incident happened more than two years. Irma Mepico-Balaba, regional coordinator of the Katungod-Sinirangan Bisayas, said that initial investigations by various groups have revealed that there was no encounter and that the soldiers of the 19th IB were the ones who shot and killed Leonardo Co and his two companions.

“We are not happy on the part of the Katungod.That is not the kind of justice that we are expecting so long as those responsible are still active in service and not in jail,” Mepico-Balaba said. “We are sad that it took them (CHR) two years to determined the fact that they identified elements of the 19th IB have violated human rights and international humanitarian law,” she said. She said that the group hopes that the case of Co and his two companions would be given justice and not only up to recommendation level. “Filing of charges must follow soon right after it took the CHR two long years of slow-paced progress. Ever since, the evidence had been so strong against the military that they pointed their guns to Prof. Co’s team and strafed them down dead,” Dean Lacandazo, regional secretary-general of Katungod, said in a separate interview.

For lawyer Katrina Castillo, the recommendation of the CHR appears to be “pa consuelo de bobo.” “This is nothing but a pa consuelo de bobo considering of the still many unresolved cases of extrajudicial killings in the country. It took two years of the CHR to come up with its recommendation considering of strong evidence against the military,” Castillo,head of legal service of Katungod-SB, said.

http://leytesamardaily.net/2012/12/19th-ib-commanding-officer-says-he-will-produce-soldiers-involved-in-cos-killing-if-there-is-an-order/