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AFP: De Lima never linked us to extrajudicial killings


The military on Wednesday maintained that it has nothing to do with the recent killings of activists, noting that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, contrary to reports, has never linked soldiers to the crime. “I just had a talk with her. She never alluded to the military as the perpetrators in the killing," said Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta in an interview with reporters Wednesday. Mabanta said he personally talked with de Lima on Wednesday afternoon to clarify newspaper reports quoting her as saying that the military may be responsible for the recent spate of extrajudicial killings. He said de Lima did not mention who she was referring to when she said that certain groups “would make trouble to shame the government." At least three activists had already been killed under the two-week-old Aquino administration, one of them slain inside a military reservation in Central Luzon. GMANews.TV tried to contact de Lima to clarify her statements on the rash of extrajudicial killings that occurred in the past weeks, but calls to her phone were unanswered. AFP Civil Relations Service chief Brig. Gen. Francisco Cruz, meanwhile, said it was “unfair" to link the military to the killings even without proper investigation. “We find it unfair to be wrongfully blamed for these incidents without the benefit of an investigation. It never has been and shall never be a policy of the AFP to resort to do harm against the very people it has sworn to protect," he said in a separate interview. Cruz urged the public and the investigators to look at the killings in a “broader perspective" and appealed to people who have knowledge on the killings to come out and shed light on the issue. - Andreo Calonzo/KBK, GMANews.TV

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