SOLDIERS linked to the deaths of five Manobo tribesmen in Pangantucan, Bukidnon may soon be facing criminal and administrative charges, Bayan Muna representative and Union of People’s Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM) member Carlos Isagani Zarate said Friday.
Zarate said UPLM lawyers will be having a case conference with relatives of the five lumad, dubbed the Pangantucan 5, to determine how best to proceed with the planned filing of the cases.
The military earlier maintained that the five - identified as Jobert Samia, Herminiano Samia, Elmer Somina, and minors Emer Somina, 17, and Norman Samia 13 - were New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who engaged elements of the Army’s 1st Special Forces Battalion in a supposed fire fight in Barangay Mendis, some two kilometers from Pangantucan town last August 18.
Human rights advocates and relatives of the victims, however, disputed the military’s claims saying the five were civilians and that they were killed in cold blood.
Zarate said lawyers will be looking at lodging complaints in relation to the Pangantucan 5 in different venues such as the Courts, the Commission of Human Rights (CHR), and others to ensure that justice will be served.
“We will file cases in different arenas,” Zarate said adding that the recent killings in Bukidnon and Surigao de Sur are deadly symptoms of a troubling government policy aimed at breaking down lumad resistance from business intrusions into tribal lands.
Zarate, who, together with fellow Bayan Muna lawmaker Neri Colmenares were speakers at Barug Katungod Mindanao Conference held at the Mass Specc Building along Yacapin Street, this city, said aside from the case of the Pangantucan 5, the lawyers will also be looking at other cases of attacks against the Lumad in Mindanao, including the August 26 arrests of 11 tribesmen in Kitaotao, Bukidnon and the September 1 killing of three lumad leaders in Lianga, Surigao del Sur.
Barug Katungod is a Mindano-wide human rights network of lawyers, church people, academics, lumad groups, and other rights advocates.
The two-day conference which ended Friday, September 11, was participated by some 100 representatives of different groups. Among the objectives of the conference is the drafting of resolutions and recommendations regarding the human rights situation in Mindanao for action at local, national, and international levels.
Armed intel operative intercepted
Meanwhile, conference participants were alarmed yesterday afternoon after organizers intercepted an armed suspected intelligence operative at the entrance of the conference venue.
Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) Bishop Antonio Ablon said a .45 caliber pistol was found in the possession of one RolandoL. Gamonit Sr. who tried to enter the conference by posing as a representative of a lumad group.
Ablon said organizers of the conference were able to disarm Gamonit, cuffing him with a handcuff found in his possession.
Ablon said they recognized Gamonit as the same man who tried to sneak into a similar meeting last year.
Gamonit was later turned over to responding policemen from the Divisoria Police Station.