• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. challenged on Saturday the claims of human rights groups that six of the 19 New People’s Army (NPA) members killed in recent encounters in Toboso, Negros Occidental, were civilians, saying those making the allegations should present proof and evidence.
“If the NPA is their source, what kind of credibility can you give to the statement of a terrorist organization?” Teodoro asked, stressing that Army soldiers directly witnessed six of those killed carrying firearms.
Teodoro, who met with Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson on May 23 to thank local officials for their support to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), maintained that the military operations conducted in the hinterlands of Toboso and Cauayan were legitimate.
“They are government officers in the conduct of official duty. They have a very strong presumption of regularity in the performance of their functions,” Teodoro said, adding that series of encounters in Negros Occidental stemmed from complaints raised by communities, which the AFP was responding to.
“I am 100 percent sure of the legitimacy, not only of the planning but also the conduct of the operations in Toboso and Cauayan,” he said.
It is up to the human rights groups to disprove this, and not do so by innuendos and hearsay, and bad publicity or propaganda, so that they can collect from their sponsors abroad, Teodoro said.
They are using the tragic deaths of these 19, as a propaganda tool for them to gain relevance power and maybe the status of legitimacy, the Defense chief added.
Nineteen suspected rebels died in series of encounters with 79th Infantry Battalion soldiers on April 19 in Toboso, while five more rebels died in further armed clashes with 15th Infantry Battalion on May 16 in Cauayan, all in Negros Occidental.
Of the 24 killed, there were two student activists, two foreigners, a community journalist, an alumnus of government school in Cebu turned secretary of the South West Front-Komiteng Rehiyonal- Negros, and three minors.
Teodoro also dismissed arguments that only 11 of the 19 fatalities tested positive for gunpowder residue, saying paraffin tests are only secondary evidence.
“That does not mean anything. What if they have gloves? A paraffin test cannot substitute the testimony of actual participants, which is direct evidence rather than hearsay,” he stressed.*
