UPDATE (Philippines): Flawed police investigations into killing, with no arrests made despite gunmen having been identified

[NOTICE: The AHRC has developed a new automatic letter-sending system using a “send button”. However, in this appeal, we could not include e-mail addresses of some of the Philippine authorities. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the Philippine authorities are attached below with this appeal. Thank you.]

 

[RE: UA-140-2006: PHILIPPINES: Another activist killed, several others seriously wounded in separate attacks; UA-130-2006: PHILIPPINES: Two more activists killed]
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PHILIPPINES: Extra-judicial killings; defective police investigation; absence of witness protection; violence against women; violence against activists and their families
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the murder of activists Rico Adeva of Talisay, Negros Occidental (UA-130-2006) and Enrico Cabanit of Panabo City (UA-140-2006).

According to a report released by the Partnership for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Services, Inc. (PARRDS), the police investigation into Cabanit’s murder was flawed. In addition, Cabanit’s daughter Daffodil survived the attack on April 24 in Panabo City, despite being wounded, but has since gone into hiding out of fear for her life. She has not been afforded any adequate protection to ensure her safety. (To read full text of PARRDS’ report, please visit: NGO report)

It is reported that the Panabo City Police were unable to completely secure the relevant physical evidence from the crime scene. Not all the spent shells resulting from the gunmen’s shooting were recovered. They were unable to secure photographs and sketches of the crime scene. The photographs the police investigators had taken of the crime scene were of no use, because the camera they had used was later found to have been defective. There was no autopsy and post-mortem examination performed on Cabanit’s body. Furthermore, one of the investigators, Police office 3 (PO3) Domingo Ranain, went on leave for a month the day after he began the investigation. The follow-up investigations were then made more difficult, due to P03 Ranain’s absence. When P03 Ranain returned to work following his leave, he reportedly required Cabanit’s family to produce P 25,000 (USD 496) as expenses should they want the body to be exhumed for autopsy. The victim’s family, however, could not produce the amount and, as a result, the body has still not been exhumed.

Although police investigators had been able to produce sketches of the gunmen, based on witness accounts, their descriptions however contradicted those of other witnesses also present at the crime scene. It was later found out that those who provided descriptions of the gunmen, were also their informants. The description and information provided by other civilian witnesses who were also present when the shooting took place and were positioned much closer than the police informants, have reportedly not been given consideration in the investigation.

Three or four days after the shooting, Panabo City police investigators announced that the sketches of one of the gunmen had led to his being identified as being Mr. Monching Solon. A police officer assigned in nearby Tagum City, PO3 Salvador Dumas, reportedly identified the person in the sketches. PO3 Dumas claimed Solon was a member of the notorious “Boy Parola Group”, a gun-for-hire syndicate in the area.

The police investigators later started locating Solon’s whereabouts. They received information that he was in the nearby town of Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte. Alongside being involved in gun-for-hire activities, Solon is also thought to have been used by the local police as a paid informant. For purposes of identification, the police investigators took the two witnesses–who are also paid police assets–with them to Sto. Tomas, but Solon could not be found. A few days later, the Panabo City Police Intelligence Officer received information from other police informants indicating that Solon had already fled to General Santos City.

On 26 May 2006, Solon was reported to have been one of two men killed in General Santos City in a shooting incident. Although the two witnesses–who are also police assets–had positively identified Solon as one of the gunmen in Cabanit’s killing, one of two other witnesses who are sympathetic to the Cabanit family insists that Solon was not the gunman. There are therefore concerns that the real perpetrators remain at large.

These concerns are compounded by the fact that there are also allegations relating to the possible involvement in the killing of one of the members of the Panabo City Police Office, which is leading investigation of the case. A reliable source connected to the victim has claimed that a hired killer was paid P150,000 (USD 2,973) to carry out the murder. There are allegations that the unnamed hired killer had then hired the services of one of the policemen in Panabo City. This information was confirmed by two separate sources. These allegations, however, have not been adequately investigated.

In another case, two of the gunmen in the murder of activist Rico Adeva of Talisay, Negros Occidental on April 15 have already been identified. Rico Adeva was a staff member of the Task Force Mapalad (TFM), an agrarian non-governmental organisation assisting peasant beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (Carp) to claim lands awarded to them. Adeva’s wife, Nenita, who was with her husband but was not harmed during the attack, has since not been able to get any protection and fears reprisals against her. In a sworn statement made by Nenita on April 24, she identified the gunmen as Ronald Europa, a distant relative of her husband, and another person known under the alias of Boy Negro.

Nenita was ordered to lay face-down on the ground. Nenita has described her husband’s attackers to a sketch artist from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and has confirmed that it was Ronald Europa, a member of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army – Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) armed rebel group, and other members of this group that attacked them, killing her husband. Nenita recounted having met with Ronald in 1997 and 1998, when he and his companions visited their house. Nenita has not seen him again since.

Prior to the shooting incident, it is reported that some of the Task Force Mapalad (TFM) leaders had met with the Ronald and his group. Reports said suspects Ronald, Boy Negro and another unnamed person had approached one of the TFM leaders on 9 April 2006. They had asked what day Adeva usually comes. Since then, Ronald and his group were seen passing along Barangay (village) San Antonio once per day.

The TFM leaders were actually at odds with Ronald’s armed rebel group. It is reported that in some of the meetings held by TFM, armed rebels were reportedly seen intimidating them by taking part in the meeting uninvited. This took place on March 3, 2003 in Hacienda Kapitan Ramon and on September 10, 2005. The TFM leaders are also reported to be at odds with another labour organisation that is thought to be allied with the armed group.

Prior to his death, Adeva had been threatened and harassed to prohibit him from holding meetings in the area. On one occasion, an unidentified woman warned Adeva, who was at that time participating in a conference in Silay City, to stop organizing the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) in Hacienda Canaan, Cadiz City. He was told that if they do not, the RPA-ABB would pick them up. “We know you have again new organizers. Tell those two women to stop organising. Almost all of our areas have been grabbed by TFM ARBs already“, the woman is reported as having said.

On February 16 this year, beneficiaries who are allies of the TFM were allegedly threatened and harassed by nine heavily armed rebels to prevent them from tilling the 39 hectares of sugarcane plantation in Hacienda Dorotea. The rebels pointed their firearms at them. The peasants that the TFM had help to claim their lands were reportedly ordered to stop from cultivating the land and to vacate the area. In March 2006, Rico Adeva was reportedly offered PhP 500,000 (USD 9,911) to stop organizing ARBs for the TFM. He was also promised a job at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) as part of the deal. It is not clear who made the offer.

Although the leadership of the armed group RPA-ABB confirmed that one of the gunmen in Adeva’s killing, Ronald Europa, is their member in the Silay area, no arrest has been made. They have also insisted that since 2000 Ronald has been based in an area far from the barangay (village) where the killing took place. Ronald’s unnamed brother, who was alleged to be involved in the killing, has just recently joined the group and is based in Central Region, Himamaylan. The group however denied knowing the other gunman, Boy Negro.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to agencies listed below requesting them to conduct further investigations regarding Enrico Cabanit’s case. The allegations of shortcomings in police’s methods of investigation in dealing with the case must be looked into. The allegations of possible involvement by some policemen in conspiring to murder Cabanit with the hired killers must also be investigates thoroughly and impartially. The authorities must also provide immediate and adequate protection to Cabanit’s daughter Daffodil who survived the attack but has since been forced into hiding due to fears for her life.

Concerning Rico Adeva’s case, the police must immediately take all steps necessary to ensure the arrest of the alleged perpetrators involved in his murder, in order to have them prosecuted in a court of law. Adeva’s wife Nenita must also be provided with adequate protection without delay. It is necessary that Nenita be afforded with immediate and adequate protection, and has since identified the alleged perpetrators, placing her at risk of reprisals. Her testimony will likely play an important role in the trial of the perpetrators and she should therefore receive witness protection as a matter of urgency.

 

 

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