THE 10th Infantry Division urged the fact-finding mission trying to look into the spate of killings in Compostela Valley to submit their findings to legitimate investigating bodies.
The mission, led by Karapatan-Southern Mindanao, was conducted in Sitio Post 4, Barangay Napnapan, Pantukan in Compostela Valley last week.
“We would like to encourage Karapatan-SMR, Bayan, Anakpawis, KMP (farmers group) and other groups who joined the alleged independent fact-finding mission to submit their findings,” Batchar said.
He said submitting the results of the probe to agencies like the Commission on Human Rights will allow the prosecution of those responsible for the killings.
“These will also allow those being accused to confront their accusers in the proper legal forum,” he added.
Batchar added that using the results of their findings to further pin down the military and paramilitary groups on the killings will only raise more doubts about the sincerity of the mission.
In fact, he claimed that the mission already rejected the officer of Pantukan Mayor Roberto Yugo to join the multi-sectoral group that the local government is planning to organize to also look into the killings.
“We therefore request the groups led by Karapatan-SMR to join and fully support the investigating body that the provincial government of Compostela Valley and LGU Pantukan will organize,” he said.
“We likewise call on all concerned sectors to join and actively support this investigating body in order to come out with a credible and unbiased report,” he added.
Batchar also suspected the timing of the fact-finding mission as the sodliers are in middle of offensive operations to arrest communist rebels led by a Jolan Suazo.
The efforts of the army to flush out the NPAs in the area already cost the lives of one officer and two enlisted personnel, and the wounding of four other soldiers in an earlier encounter in Pantukan area.
They are calling on leftist groups to go beyond “propaganda statements.”
“Instead, we exhort them to file appropriate charges in the court of law,”He said.
This so-called fact-finding mission undertaken by KARAPATAN-SMR. Anakpawis, BAYAN, KMP and other groups is nothing more than a propaganda exercise in support of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its military arm, the New People's Army (NPA). All of the aforementioned groups are communist fronts. The main objective of the mission is to deflect accusations that the NPA is behind much of the mayhem in Compostela Valley while pinning the blame on the PHilippine military. It's not about facts, it's about anti-government/military propaganda.
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