MANILA—Human rights group Karapatan criticized the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict’s (NTF-ELCAC) for questioning the initial findings of a forensic pathology expert on the five out of 19 individuals killed in Toboso, Negros Occidental on April 19.
In a statement, the NTF-ELCAC said that Dr. Raquel Fortun’s findings do not establish a massacre. It added, “Questions on body condition, wounds, or identification do not automatically negate the existence of a legitimate encounter.”
The task force also defended the alleged mishandling of evidence, saying it “must also be viewed in the context of a difficult combat recovery operation.”
Karapatan called out these lies which they say is an attempt to reinforce the “encounter” narrative on the massacre of the Toboso 19.
“The hideous red-tagging agency of the Marcos Jr. government is scrambling to cover up and evade accountability, when even an initial reading of the autopsy observations on five of the Negros 19 only buries them deeper in lies,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan.
Palabay said that it was the NTF-ELCAC and the Armed Forces of the Philippines that immediately concluded that the incident in Toboso, Negros Occidental was a “legitimate encounter.”
Days after the incident last April 19, NTF-ELCAC-backed Buklod Kapayapaan conducted what they called a fact-finding mission in Toboso. They claimed that what happened on April 19 was an encounter and that all 19 were armed members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) refuted this days after the incident. In a statement, the CPP said that only 10 were members of the NPA and the rest were civilians, including two minors.
“This is not the first time these warmongers in the AFP have killed people under the cover of legitimate military operations,” Palabay said, citing previous incidents where civilians and farmers were extrajudicially killed and later portrayed as NPA members.
What’s worse, she added, is that photos of the dead immediately circulated online, complete with firearms and military gear beside them.
Palabay observed that there is an organized campaign of state agents to pin down the 19 individuals through its terror tagging online.
“It was all done to peddle the immediate conclusion and narrative that this was a ‘legitimate encounter’,'” she said.
The NTF-ELCAC also defended the wrongful turnover of Errol Wendel’s body to his family, saying that it should not be weaponized as proof of bad faith.
Palabay said that they stood by the families who attested that the bodies of their families were turned over without the process of proper identification. “Brutality screams from their treatment not only of the bodies, but also of the families.”
She said that only during the autopsy of five of the victims did Erro Wendel’s family discover that the body handed to them was not his.
“And the military says it was an honest mistake? It speaks volumes about how they treat those killed, as mere numbers and trophies in their war against the people, against civilians,” she said.
Palabay said that Fortun’s initial findings that gunshot wounds sustained by the victims which were at the back, in the leg and signs of aspiration are “more than telling signs” of possible violations of international humanitarian law (IHL).
Add to that the drone video footage that circulated online a week after the supposed encounter where NPA leader Roger Fabillar was seen alive and in water. The video however has since been taken down.
“They are seriously twisting the rules of international humanitarian law by insisting that everyone killed was a legitimate target in a military operation. How do they explain the findings that one of the casualties sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the leg and may have been left to bleed to death?” Palabay said. “The Negros 19 is a massacre, by the sheer number of deaths alone. And now, seeing how the AFP and NTF-ELCAC continue to lie through their teeth despite the numerous issues pointing to an apparent cover-up, all the more we must demand accountability for these killings.”
“They did not merely desecrate the dead. They are hiding behind the cloak of impunity and brutality that the State has consistently wielded against the people,” she said.
Karapatan reiterated its call for an independent and thorough investigation into the killings of the Toboso 19. The group said that any investigation conducted by the military or the police cannot be considered genuine or impartial. (DAA, RVO)
The post NTF-ELCAC covering up Toboso 19 massacre, rights group says appeared first on Bulatlat.
From Bulatlat via This RSS Feed.