THE MILITARY has denied the allegations that they are behind the killing of a lumad youth leader in Mabini, Compostela Valley.
The Karapatan in Southern Mindanao Region has accused soldiers of the army’s 46th Infantry Battalion under 1001st Infantry Brigade as behind the killing of Joselito “Anoy” Pasaporte, a leader of Panalipdan Youth organization.
Col. Macairog Alberto, the brigade commander, said militant is always making up baseless accusation.
“They are always accusing the military,” Alberto said. “We leave it to the police to investigate and determine who did it.”
Alberto said they also found out that Pasaporte was in the police drug watch list, making it to the sixth spot in the list of the Mabini Municipal Police Station.
Initial police investigation revealed that Pasaporte was walking on his way home to Barangay Tagnanan in Mabini after watching a cockfight at Mabini Gallera in Barangay Lapinigan when unidentified assailants shot him from behind around 5:20 p.m. on Thursday.
The victim sustained five gunshot wounds on the different parts of his body resulting to his death. The suspects then fled away to unknown direction.
Panalipdan is a progressive environmentalist group.
The Mabini Municipal police station is conducting investigation to pinpoint the perpetrators.
Pasaporte death came just three days after the murder of another militant lumad leader.
Jimmy Saypan, 58, the secretary general of the Compostela Valley Farmer Association (CFA), was also shot by unidentified assailants on Monday.
Saypan was declared dead by his attending physician at the Davao Regional Hospital in Tagum City at 2:25 p.m. the next day.
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas secretary general Antonio Flores also accused soldiers, under the army’s 66th Infantry Battalion, in the murder.
But Capt. Rhyan Batchar, spokesperson of the 10th Infantry Division, slammed the accusation.
Instead, Batchar asked Flores to instead cooperate with the ongoing police investigation by providing information and evidence to support his allegations.
The death of Pasaporte and Saypan were raised by militant leaders during the Lakbayan ng Pambansang Minorya held on Thursday.
Kerlan Fanagel, chair of Pasaka Confederation of Lumad Organizations, denounced the attacks as violation of the unilateral ceasefire agreement declared by government.
KARAPATAN, PASAKA, and the KMP are all Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) front organizations who routinely levy unsubstantiated allegations of human rights violations against the Philippine military.
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