CHR questions PNP, AFP failure to probe Caraga private armies

BUTUAN CITY - Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Leila De Lima and Commissioner Jose Manuel Mamauag questioned the field commanders of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) for their failure to investigate sources of firearms and ammunition of private armed groups in Caraga Region. The chiefs of police from Prosperidad and Bayucan City, together with military officials headed by 402nd Army Brigade Commander Col. Emiliano Gupana, testified in the last day of the public inquiry, which had been called to raise public awareness on human rights and gather more data on the extrajudicial killings in the area. The CHR had summoned the AFP and PNP officials to shed light on allegations that the military and police were allegedly coddling private armed groups. Chief Inspector Apollo Abao, head of the Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur Municipal Police, admitted before the CHR probe body that they were unable to investigate the sources of the 18 firearms and cache of ammunition surrendered by Datu Calpito Egua and Ondo Perez during the Prosperidad hostage taking negotiations. It took intense legal cross-examinations by the two top officials of the human rights body to get the military and police officials to reveal that they actually failed to investigate and identify who provided firearms and ammunition to armed groups of Ondo Perez, Joel Tubay, and Datu Calpito Egua. The two CHR officials also asked whether the PNP and the AFP investigated the possible sources of the firearms and ammunition of the region’s private armies. The officials admitted that they were not able to do so. Army Col. Emiliano Gupana, aided by his lawyer Atty. Patrick Battad who stayed at the military officer’s side in the entire duration of the investigation, told the CHR commissioners it is the Philippine National Police duty to investigate common crimes because Philippine Army’s job is to deal with insurgency. Then, when De Lima and Mamauag asked Gupana if he had already received memorandum issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordering both the military and the police to investigate private armies in their areas of responsibility, Gupana replied on the negative. On the first day of the public inquiry, witnesses alleged that a top military and a police official received luxury vehicles from the alleged wealthy financial backer of Tubay’s group. “We were informed that a black Ford Expedition was given to a military official while a black Isuzu AUV was given to a police official by the rich financial backer of Joel Tubay," the witnesses claimed. The CHR commissioners said they would request security escorts from the PNP and the military to the witnesses because of the danger of their revelations. They had invited ten witnesses to testify in the two-day public inquiry but only three showed up. Throngs of relatives accompanied the three witnesses, who came from the hinterlands of Prosperidad. They told De Lima and Mamauag that they heard loud gunshots fired from high- powered firearms near their homes on the night before they came to Butuan City. Mamauag stated that he himself knew about the warning shots fired in the evening at the eve of the CHR-led public inquiry. - FVI, GMANews.TV