2 Years Later, Justice Remains Elusive for Leyte Massacre Victims

“Those circumstances pose many questions,” the Tabang Palo conveners said in their statement. “Why did it take him that long to decide? Was he trying to buy some time until the public would lose interest in the massacre? Why did he attempt to inhibit himself in the first place? Was he being harassed or simply afraid of the military, the respondents in the complaint? Was the decision he made more about saving his own skin than giving justice a chance for the victims of the Palo massacre?

“It also does not escape the thought of Tabang Palo that in many instances, the office of the prosecutor finds it VERY EASY to file charges of rebellion and murder on flimsy allegations, questionable witnesses and fabricated evidences when it is members of the progressive organizations who are being charged. Why the double standard? Is that the standard procedure under the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (IALAG), which is tasked by the Arroyo administration to prepare and file cases against ‘enemies of the state’ under her Oplan Bantay Laya 2?”

“Flimsy argument”

Prosecutor Yu in his resolution also used as basis for his decision to dismiss the complaint the decision of the peasants to stay at the farm a night before they were set to implement the “tiklos.” He said that he “finds it rather unusual for a group of 46 persons to converse in a small hut . . . there is no need for these people to spend the whole evening in a small hut and suffer discomfort in order to work in the following morning.”

Tabang Palo finds this observation both “hilarious” and “borne out of pure ignorance.”

“It is very common for organized peasants who are to do a tiklos to gather a day before to ready their equipments, review their plans and for them to be able to start to work early the next day,” the Tabang Palo conveners said. “(More so) when the land is being contested by a landlord as was the case in San Agustin, Palo, Leyte. For us, it was but a flimsy argument or was just an attempt to be an expert on peasant traditions or working methods – obviously, he is simply ignorant.”

CHR recommendation

The office of the Commission on Human Rights in Eastern Visayas also conducted its own investigation on the massacre. Finding probable cause, it has recommended to the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for the Military and Other Law Enforcement Offices the filing of criminal complaints against the military (MOLEO).

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), which has been following up the case, was informed of the same recommendation by the CHR-VIII. The group followed-up the case at MOLEO but it has yet to be acted upon.

Not yet over

The victims-complainants are not surrendering yet, however, and are trying to exhaust “other means” in their search for justice.

Meanwhile, lawyers from the Legal Aid Program of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)-Leyte Chapter who are handling the case and Tabang Palo are set to have a dialogue with the complainants. They are planning to file an appeal on Yu’s resolution. Bulatlat