The family of the five persons killed in Bukidnon called for
an independent probe of the alleged encounter between the military and New
People's Army (NPA) rebels Wednesday last week.
In a press conference here Monday, Eryo Inahan, Chairman of
the Manobo Farmers Association in Pangantucan, Bukidnon, said that the victims,
who died in a reported military encounter in Pangantucan, Bukidnon last
Wednesday, were innocent civilians.
“We want the military to clear the names of the victims
because they (victims) were not rebels of the New People’s Army (NPA) as
alleged by the military,” Inahan told the local press.
Inahan said that the oldest among the victims was a blind
72-year-old man and the youngest was a 14-year-old minor, all members of the
Manobo clan, an indigenous tribe in Bukidnon.
He identified the victims as Mateo Samia, 72, brothers
Wilmer and Elmer Simena, Ibe Samia and the 14-year-old minor as Kadong Samia.
Inahan said that Lontoy Samia, 15, the elder brother of
Kadong Samia, managed to escape to tell the alleged massacre story.
Lontoy alleged that the military shot them one-by-one after
they went down from their house on orders of the military, Inahan said.
Capt. Patrick Martinez, the spokesperson of the army’s 4th
Infantry Division, said that they encountered a group of armed rebels in the village of Mandog Mendez ,
9-kilometers from the town of Pangantucan
He said that the Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) in the
municipal police station in Pangantucan conducted an investigation of the
incident and submitted an official report about the death of the victims.
Based on the SOCO report, the military recovered 19
backpacks, an AK-47 rifle, and the bodies of the five persons in the encounter
site, Martinez
“While the military laments the unfortunate incident, the
family of the victims has the right to call for an investigation – it is their
right,” Martinez
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=796388
This is the same old commie propaganda song and dance. Communist front groups assert that NPA rebels killed in encounters with the Philippine military are not really insurgents but are innocent civilians murdered by soldiers. Of course, in this instance, they have a difficult time explaining away the 19 military backpacks and the AK 47 that were recovered at the scene of the encounter. Hardly the kind of gear that would be associated with "innocent civilians."
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