Friday, May 16, 2008 Army major denies hand in peasant leader slay By Carlo P. Mallo
AN ARMY official accused to have perpetrated the murder of peasant leader Celso Pojas simply laughed off the reports.
"It sounds absurd and ridiculous," Major Medel Aguilar, 5th Civil Relations chief, said in an interview with Sun.Star Davao Thursday in reaction to reports linking him to the killing of militant leader.
Pojas was gunned down around 6:30 a.m. Thursday in front of the Farmer Center Office in Bugac, Ma-a in Davao City.
Aguilar nonetheless slammed on the accusations of the militant groups that he was involved in the killing. He said that for human rights advocates to immediately point a finger on him "is quite contradictory to their advocacy."
On the other hand, Senior Superintendent Jaime Morente, city police chief, said the Regional Task Force Celso Pojas was immediately created by the Police Regional Office (PRO) Southern Mindanao after the incident.
"The task force is composed of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 11 as lead investigating agency with the Davao City Police Office and the Talomo Police Station," Morente told Sun.Star Davao Thursday.
Morente added that the Talomo Police Station is still conducting further investigations on the incident.
