DUMAGUETE CITY – A medico-legal team from the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) central office will conduct autopsies on Friday and Saturday on two of 14 farmers killed during the joint police and military police operations in Negros Oriental in late March.
Dr. Jess Cañete, CHR-Negros Oriental provincial chief, said Wednesday that the medico-legal team will arrive here Thursday but the exhumation and autopsies are set on Friday in Manjuyod and on Saturday in Sta. Catalina town.
“This is part of the independent and impartial investigation conducted by the CHR on the deaths of the farmers following conflicting reports and claims from different sectors on how the joint police and military operations were carried out,” he said in the Cebuano dialect.
He said the families of the late Valentin Acabal, village chief of Candabong in Manjuyod, and Ano Enojo Rapada of Sta. Catalina, are so far the only ones who have requested for an autopsy.
Dr. Cañete reassured that all efforts will be undertaken to ensure an impartial investigation.
He said it is still premature to come up with any conclusion until after the CHR has wrapped up its investigation, he said.
In the meantime, he said his office is already getting statements from families, friends, and potential witnesses.
Twelve other farmers, namely, Steve Arapoc, Sunny Palagtiw, Edgardo Avelino, Esmael Avelino, Manolo Martin, Rogelio Recomono, Ricky Recomono, Genes Palmares, Gonzalo Rosales, Mario Pañares, Melcor Pañares, and Franklin Lariosa were also killed in what was dubbed as "Oplan Sauron", carried out under the Synchronized Enhanced Managing Police Operations (SEMPO) in Canlaon City, Manjuyod, and Sta. Catalina.
Police Col. Raul Tacaca, who was then the provincial police director but was relieved effective April 2, along with the police chiefs of the three SEMPO subject areas, had said that the subjects of the joint operations were members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
Police authorities have justified the raids as legitimate, saying these were done by virtue of search warrants for illegal firearms and explosives, and those killed resisted arrest and engaged the raiding teams in a shootout.
But the victims’ families and human rights groups are saying otherwise, claiming “illegalities” in the the conduct of the raids, such as the wearing of ski masks and the absence of name tags on the uniforms of the law enforcers. They also claimed the farmers were unarmed. (PNA)
