“I saw it with my own two eyes. What happened was a massacre.”
CAGAYAN DE ORO — A network advocating for Moro people’s rights denounced the reported massacre of three civilians, including a 12-year-old child, perpetrated by state security forces in Sitio Alas-as, Barangay Sinunuc, Zamboanga City, on April 23.
The Moro-Christian Peoples Alliance (MCPA) called for an independent and impartial investigation, including the presentation of footage from body-worn cameras used by the authorities during the operation.
“The killing of a Moro child inside his own home is not an isolated case anymore. It is an indictment of a system that continues to place civilian lives at risk,” Amirah Ali Lidasan, MCPA secretary general, said in a statement.
According to the Police Regional Office in Zamboanga Peninsula, a legitimate operation was carried out by the police and members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to serve three arrest warrants against an alleged member of an armed group who was spotted in the area.
It said that an alleged firefight occurred as there were unidentified individuals who opened fire toward the operating troops.
The fatalities were members of the Alfad family, including Jerry, a member of the barangay’s Lupong Tagapamayapa (justice body), his 12-year-old son Salam, and his 22-year-old nephew Rayyan. Reportedly none of them were the subject of the arrest warrants.
Another member of the family was also wounded.
Contrary to the accounts of the police, witnesses claimed that there was no an exchange of gunfire.
A relative told Emedia Mo FM in an interview that a member of the operating team allegedly pointed a firearm at him and told him to drop to the ground. He said he saw how the uniformed personnel shot the house multiple times the moment they stepped inside.
“I saw it with my own two eyes. What happened was a massacre,” the victims’ relative told the Emedia Mo FM reporter in Filipino.
The operation took place around 1:30 a.m. and the fatalities were just sleeping in their room. The said witness and the other son of Jerry were still awake at the time of the incident, as they were fetching water and playing online games.
When asked if there were introductions made on the part of the operating troops, the witness could not recall. What he remembered, he said, was that they were accused of being members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).
The Alfad family refuted this allegation, including the alleged recovery of an M16 rifle and a hand grenade at the crime scene.
Barangay Sinunuc Captain Pilarica Ledesma also told reporters that she knew Jerry since she was elected as captain, when the latter served as a village watchman until he became a member of the Lupon. She said that she can attest that Jerry was a kind person.
The Zamboanga regional police has activated a special investigation task group to look into the case.
The Muslim Lawyers of Zambasulta, however, said that the investigation should be independent of the involved law enforcement units. The group called on the Commission on Human Rights to launch a probe.
The Moro rights advocate also called for a reassessment of the government’s counterterrorism policy and foreign-supported security frameworks, as well as the impact of these on the rights of Moro communities.
“As long as militarized security approaches, shaped by both domestic policy and foreign intervention, are imposed on our communities, such killings will continue,” Lidasan said, demanding justice for the victims. (DAA)
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