The 15-year old survivor of what human rights groups call the 'Pangantucan massacre' clasps his hands as he recounts how his father, two brothers and two other relatives were killed on August 18. (photo by Cong Corrales, InterAksyon.com)
The 15-year old Manobo boy could hardly finish his sentences as he struggled to narrate the events of the afternoon of August 18.
The boy's father, Herminio Samia, 70, his brothers Joebert, 20, and Emir, 19, relatives Norman, 13, and Elmer, 17 -- now dubbed the “Pangantucan 5” -- were killed in Sitio Mando, Barangay Mendis, Pangantucan town in Bukidnon in what the military and police insist was a “legitimate encounter” between government forces and the New People’s Army.
The “official” account may have passed unchallenged but for the boy, the lone survivor, who, flanked by relatives and the spokesperson of the Alliance for Advancement of People’s Rights in Northern Mindanao Region (Karapatan-NMR), Bishop Christopher Ablon, told journalists of how soldiers shot his father, brothers and relatives one by one.
He recalled begging the soldiers to take them in as prisoners instead of summarily executing them.
Herminio was also known in their community as Datu Intabol, the second highest ranking chieftain of their tribal community, Karapatan said. He and another son, Oreneo, belonged to the council of tribal elders who are consulted by the community on major decisions.
The report of a fact-finding mission undertaken by Karapatan-NMR said: “The residents wanted to go to the site immediately hoping they could still save him (Herminio) and the others, but the boy stopped them saying that the military men no longer differentiated civilians and would shoot anyone.”
In its own press conference, the Army vehemently denied the “Pangantucan 5” had been massacred and insisted the five died during a clash with NPA guerrillas, citing the police report on the paraffin test done on the victims to bolster its assertion they were all rebel combatants.
Superintendent April Madrozo, assistant regional director of the police Scene of the Crime Operatives, told the same press conference the dead men and teenagers tested positive for nitrates, indicating they could have fired guns before they died.
Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound widely used in gunpowder, artillery primers, hand-grenade fuses, and fireworks. Also known as saltpeter or niter, it is also used in fertilizers.
Responding to the SOCO findings, Ablon said the presence of nitrate in the arms and hands of the fatalities should not be surprising since they were farmers.
In the book “Gunshot Wounds: Practical Aspects of Firearms, Ballistics, and Forensic Techniques,” Dr. Vincent JM Di Maio of the Texas Forensic Science Commission said although paraffin tests often turn out positive on the hands of persons who have fired weapons, they can also give positive results for persons who have not actually fired a gun.
“(This is) because of the widespread distribution of nitrates and nitrites in our environment. The paraffin test is in fact non-specific and is of no use scientifically,” Di Maio wrote.
The human rights group also wondered why the military recovered only one AK-47 rifle where the five lumad were killed.
1st Special Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Nasser Lidasan explained to media that the other guerrillas took the firearms of their fallen comrades when they fled the area.
In an emailed statement, NPA-North Central Regional Command spokesman Allan Juanito confirmed that there was a clash with Army Special Forces on August 18 and that they had, indeed, left an AK-47 rifle behind.
But Juanito said the encounter happened some four kilometers away from the Samias’ community.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/117039/shot-one-by-one--teenage-survivor-recounts-massacre-of-bukidnon-lumad
The Communist Party of the Philippines front organization KARAPATAN continues its propaganda assault against the Philippine military with regard to the “massacre” of the “Pangantucan 5,”.the five NPA rebels killed in an encounter with the elements of the Philippine Army. KARAPATAN attempts to discount the military claim that paraffin tests prove the rebels fired weapons but arguing that the tests are unreliable. The group also seeks to raise questions regarding the military version of the incident by pointing out that only on weapon, an AK 47 was recovered from the encounter sight.
ReplyDeleteHowever, given KARAPATAN’s association with the CPP and its rabidly anti-military orientation the credibility of the group’s assertions about the incident are extremely difficult to believe. Is it possible that the pro-CPP KARAPATAN could have coached a relative sympathetic to the cause to claim that he was a survivor and witness to the incident? Keep in mind that thecommunists have used this tactic in the past.