Editorial: Contrasting narratives

(Editorial Cartoon by Josua Cabrera)
(Editorial Cartoon by Josua Cabrera)

AS ALWAYS, in operations concerning the police and military against suspected rebels, the story breaks up into contrasting versions post-incident. The purported war bears a twin--a propaganda war of sorts in the media front, each side dishing out self-serving versions of the story ala Rashomon.

Armed with 37 arrest warrants against individuals with alleged links to the New People’s Army, a team composed of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Regional Public Safety Battalion, the PNP Special Action Force, local police stations and the Philippine Army, swooped on supposedly surveyed houses on March 30 in Negros Oriental.

The coordinated raids left 14 people killed—eight from Canlaon City, four from Manjuyod town and two in Sta. Catalina. The teams also arrested 12 persons, an information that the police say refutes claims by human rights groups that there was any massacre. Without resistance, no blood shed, authorities said. Those who died demonstrated resistance, they said.

The warrants for illegal possession of firearms succeeded in their objectives since the PNP claimed it found a good number of firearms, explosives and ammunition. There were also subversive documents among the supposed clutter of evidence, the apprehending team reported. That’s about how government illustrated its side of the story.

Rights groups’ interviews with the affected families, however, told of a different story entirely.

In the dead of the night, heavily armed, masked men broke into the houses of farmer leaders and riddled the latter with bullets while their families watched.

Edgardo Avelino, leader of the farmers group Hugpong Kusog sa Mag-uuma sa Canlaon, was shot dead just about the same time his brother, in the adjacent house, also bit the dust in the arms of unidentified men. In one report, the daughter said her father could not be a rebel or armed; he was in fact not in good health and dealt with everyone peacefully. That, among other stories, supposedly emerged from the mouths of the victims’ families, narratives that contradict the police’s version.

Meantime, PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde had ordered an investigation on the incident. He also relieved Negros Oriental Provincial Director Col. Raul Tacaca, Canlaon City Police Chief Patricio Degay, Manjuyod Municipal Station Chief Kevin Roy Mamaradlo and Sta. Catalina Police Chief Michael Rubia while the investigation takes full swing.

Quick to respond, however, was Department of the Interior and Local Government Sec. Eduardo Año who said his agency is willing to assist members of the Negros Oriental operation legally. He assured that the operation was “completely aboveboard and covered.” He dismissed claims of massacre as “typical disinformation and propaganda” by communist rebels. To recall, Año once carried the nickname “Rebel Hunter” after he led the capture of Benito and Wilma Tiamzon of the Communist Party of the Philippines in 2014. He was also Martial Law administrator in Mindanao at the height of the Marawi crisis.

While at this, San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza had raised questions about the killings and asked for a thorough investigation. We share the bishop’s sentiment.

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