Sunstar
Thursday, November 18, 2010
TACLOBAN CITY - An Army official whose men figured in an encounter with alleged members of the New People's Army (NPA) that killed a respected Filipino botanist last November 15 said he welcomes any investigation into the incident.
The said encounter resulted in the deaths of noted botanist Leonardo L. Co and two of his companions, identified as Sofronio Cortez, a forest guard of the Energy Development Corp. (EDC), and Julius Borromeo, a farmer.
Lieutenant Colonel Federico Tutaan, commanding officer of the 19th Infantry Battalion based in Kananga town, Leyte, maintained that the incident occurred while his troop was on a legitimate military operation running after NPAs who were said to be in the area.
"Definitely, we will welcome any investigation that would be conducted because of this unfortunate incident," Tutaan said in a press conference held in Tacloban City Wednesday afternoon.
Meantime, the incident immediately drew condemnation from the National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas (NDF-EV), which described it as a "massacre".
In an e-mailed statement, Father Santiago Salas, spokesperson of the NDF-EV, said that the latest incident involving the members of the 19th Infantry Battalion should be used as a ground for their "expulsion" from the region.
"It is the NDF-EV's belief that Dr. Co's group was mistaken for an NPA unit by the 19th IB elements led by Lt. Ronald Ocheamar, who attacked based on a flimsy intelligence report, and who furthermore violated the rules of engagement by indiscriminately firing without verifying their targets," Salas wrote.
Salas called on Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and Congress to initiate a probe into the incident.
Tutaan said that the soldiers who figured in the October 15 gun battle with the rebels were "sad".
"They are being blamed (over the death of the three civilians). My men were not trained to kill civilians," Tutaan said when asked if there was really an encounter. He is asking the people condemning his troop to believe that they are innocent.
Tutaan added that at this time, it would be unfair to judge them and put the blame on them as the results of the autopsy conducted by a medical team from the provincial Philippine National Police has yet to be released.
He maintained that with the exchange of fire between his soldiers and the rebels, it would be unfair to say that the bullets, which killed the three, were from his men.
"There was a volume of fire... the bullets ricocheted in different directions," he said.
Tutaan claimed that as early as November 12, they have received an intelligence report that NPA members were planning to attack the EDC complex, which was the reason why soldiers were on "heightened alert" and always in "combat mode".
The Army official also will not issue an apology to the Co family and the families of the two other fatalities, saying his doing so might be interpreted as an admission of guilt.
Tutaan said that he had no idea of Co's reputation as one of the best botanists in the country.
Last November 15 around 12:15 p.m., soldiers, led by Ocheamar, were in Sitio Upper Mahiao, Barangay Lima-ao, Kananga town, to conduct their operations as they had received information regarding the presence of armed men in the area.
This resulted in a gun battle, with the soldiers unaware that there were civilians in the area, Tutaan said. He dismisses reports that there was no actual encounter and that the three were mistaken to be part of the rebel group.
Tutaan said that the soldiers, who were positioned on higher grounds and 30 meters away from Co and his companions, were the ones who brought their bodies to safer ground. Two of them, Tutaan said, were seriously wounded, and later expired. He, however, could not say if one of them was Co.
"Two identified themselves to be employees of the EDC. The other one was already dead when my men approached them," he said.
Tutaan said that amid this controversy involving his men, Major General Mario Chan, commanding general of the 8th Infantry Division, has expressed his support.
"(All) he told me was to make an honest-to-goodness report," he said. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)
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