Picket at DOJ to mark 100 days after botanist's killing

To mark the first 100 days after the killing of botanist Leonard Co in Leyte last November, a picket is set to be held in front of the Department of Justice head office in Manila this Tuesday. Militant scientist group Agham Nasyunal scheduled the picket at 9 to 11 a.m. Tuesday before the DOJ office along Padre Faura Street. "PICKET at DOJ: 100 Days of Injustice! 100 Days of Cover-up!" the group said in on the event page created on social networking site Facebook. Co, forest guard Sofronio Cortez, and guide Julius Borromeo were shot dead near the Energy Development Corp. premises in Kananga, Leyte on Nov. 15, 2010. The military claimed Co and his companions were killed in an alleged crossfire when Army soldiers encountered communist rebels. But EDC forester Ronino Gibe and farmer Policarpio Balute, who survived the incident, claimed there was no crossfire because the gunfire came only from the direction of the military. Last January, a DOJ fact-finding panel issued a resolution absolving the military for the deaths of Co and his two companions. In its report released Jan. 20, the DOJ panel cleared the military of any liability. The report said the ballistics tests of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) showed that none of the firearms submitted by the Philippine Army matched the bullets recovered from the bodies of the three victims. Also, the DOJ team said the trajectory of the bullets that killed Co, Cortez, and Borromeo came from lower ground where the NPA rebels were supposedly positioned. The panel also blamed the Lopez-owned EDC for its supposed failure to take the “necessary precautions" despite being aware of the communist threat in company premises. But the EDC has denied it failed to ensure the safety of its employees. – MRT/VS, GMA News