Japan Group Releases Report on Killings in Philippines

* Case 16 – Sherlyn Cadapan
o Witnesses observed the victims as they were taken away in a military jeep with the license plate number RTF 597. A witness identified elements of the 56th Infantry Battalion under the7th Infantry Division as the perpetrators. Human rights investigators then observed the same jeep in front of a military camp during their investigation of the victims’ abduction.
* Case 18 – TAGAYTAY 5
* Released victims told the fact-finding mission that they were abducted by armed men and tortured by the PNP inside and in areas around a military camp.

The case of Ms. Eden Marcellana is a clear example. Ms. Marcellana was a regional secretary general of a human rights group KARAPTAN (Alliance for the Advancement of Peoples’ Rights). She was killed when she was conducting a human rights fact-finding mission in Eastern Mindoro on 21 April, 2003. A military official was identified as a perpetrator by six witnesses who were members of the fact-finding mission.

Another example is the Hacienda Luisita Massacre which took place on 16 November 2004. Many witnesses in the Hacienda Luisita, Central Luzon area testified before the HRN fact-finding team that armed soldiers of the AFP and the Philippine National Police( hereafter PNP) were the ones who shot dead seven victims as well as leaving many others injured.

The military’s involvement also seems clear in several enforced disappearance cases. The abduction case of two students from the University of the Philippines is one example38.

On 26 June 2006, Ms. Sherlyn Cadapan and Ms. Karen Empeño were abducted from the house they were staying at in Bulacan, central Luzon. They have been missing since then. The fact-finding team interviewed the mother of Ms. Sherlyn Cadapan as well as a witness who saw the crime scene. The witness clearly stated that he had identified the perpetrator as a military official belonging to the 56th Infantry Battalion.39 The fact-finding team found the testimony to be quite credible.40

Acknowledgement of the AFP

In two cases, the AFP acknowledged that the elements of the AFP killed the victims and justified the killing as “legitimate encounter between the AFP and the NPA”. In theses cases, the victims were publicly tagged as being NPA members.

* Case 2 – Benjaline Hernandez
* After the killing, the AFP and the governor of North Cotabato held a press conference where they claimed the incident was a legitimate encounter between the military and the rebel group, New People’s Army (NPA). The group of Benjaline was accused of being NPA members and this accusation was used as an excuse for the killing. The perpetrators in the military were later indicted.
* Case 15 – Grecil Buya
* The military admitted killing of the victim, however, they claim the killing was justified because they accused her of being a member of communist rebels.
* According to the victim’s family, one soldier admitted that one of the soldiers with him shot the victim to the victim’s brother.
* The Commission on Human Rights denied military’s above allegation. Later the military changed its allegation to that the “NPA is the one who killed the victim.”