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Sunday, December 22, 2002
Victims get chance to confront NBI 7
CEBU -- The congressional inquiry on the bungled National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 operation will be held in Cebu City on Jan. 6 next year, a party-list representative said.
Newly proclaimed Akbayan Rep. Mario Joyo Aguja Saturday said first in the list to be invited to the hearing will be NBI 7 officials and the victims in last Dec. 13's strafing incident.
Their names will be submitted to the committee secretariat for the issuance of notices.
Aguja, who took his oath just two weeks ago, said he talked last Friday night with fellow Akbayan Rep. Etta Rosales, who told him of the date of the hearing.
Rosales chairs the House committee on human rights, to which Aguja will be added as its newest member.
Foremost to be looked into by the committee is whether the NBI agents involved in the operation violated the rules of engagement.
Second is whether the reports are true that the NBI 7 is trying to cover up the case to protect its men.
Aguja said the incident is a strong argument in favor of the bills proposed by Akbayan that human rights education be made mandatory in government agencies, like the military, the PNP, the jail bureau and the NBI.
The bills, which are now in the committee level, are hoped to lessen human rights abuses committed by the same people tasked to enforce the law, the professor from the Mindanao State University said.
Aguja also confirmed that Rep. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III of Tarlac will be joining the panel of congressmen to conduct the hearing.
The new congressman from General Santos City described the botched NBI operation as "unimaginable" and called on local leaders to continue following up the case after the House inquiry ends.
Intent to kill
Meanwhile, criminal lawyers Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu and John Neumeran opined that going by the guns used, the NBI men that figured in the strafing of the Plantation Bay van had the intent to kill.
The NBI agents were going after a big-time drug lord when they mistook the resort's van for the suspect's vehicle.
"You don't bring guns, much more high-powered firearms, when your intention is just to maim or box a person," Neumeran said.
Although those wounded were not the target of the operation, this does not take away the intention to kill someone, said Dalawampu.
Intent to kill, according to the Supreme Court ruling on the Quijada vs. Juaban case, can be established by proving that dangerous or deadly weapons were used in the attack, there was persistence in the attack and there was a plan prior to the attack.
The victims, in their affidavits attached to the charge filed before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, recalled how the NBI agents rained bullets on their van without let-up from the time the agents tried to block their vehicle in Looc, Mandaue City.
The gunfire only stopped when the resort van could no longer move in Banilad, Cebu City, after its tires were hit by bullets.
Deadline: Jan. 13
Five of the six resort employees aboard the Mitsubishi Exceed van suffered gunshot wounds.
NBI special investigators Angelito Magno, Arnel Pura, Danilo Garay, Rey Tumalon and Teodoro Saavedra and 14 confidential agents, including radio reporter Paul Lauro and Joey Cal are now facing frustrated murder and attempted murder charges before the anti-graft office.
NBI 7 Director-on-leave Romulo Manapsal was included as an accessory because he allegedly tried to cover up the incident.
The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, which looked into the case, has said Manapsal refused to divulge the name of the other confidential agents involved, thus preventing their prosecution.
The criminal charges are bailable. A conviction can mean 12 years and one day to 20 years in prison, Neumeran said.
The committee on human rights hopes to finish the inquiry before Congress resumes on Jan. 13, when members of the House might already have other issues to attend to.
The committee decided on a hearing after Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz, backed by her fellow Cebuano representatives, delivered a speech in the House condemning the NBI 7 for the incident. LPN/GAN/Sun.Star Cebu
(December 22 2002 issue)
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