CHR takes custody of Malubog shooting survivor

CEBU, Philippines —  The Commission on Human Rights-7 has taken custody of one of two survivors of Thursday’s shooting incident in Barangay Malubog, Cebu City following her discharge from the hospital yesterday.

CHR-7 chief investigator Leo Villarino said the CHR and the police have agreed for the turnover of Charmaine Puran, 25, to the human rights body.

Puran’s location after her discharge will not be revealed for her security.

Senior Supt. Royina Garma, chief of Cebu City Police Office, clarified that the police won’t take custody of Puran and the other shooting survivor, Antonio Belande, 57, as they are not considered suspects of any crime.

Belande, who suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, is still recuperating in the hospital.

“We do not have the right to [take] custody [of] them. There is no legal basis. Kung i-custody namin sila kahit biktima sila, that’s a human rights violation,” Garma told The FREEMAN, pointing out that police won’t stop Puran and Belande from seeking help from the CHR.

She, however, said that police security for the two will remain, unless they ask the police to waive it.

‘SUPPORT US’

Earlier in the day, Garma unleashed her fury over criticisms and insinuations tagging the police in the killings, specifically those made by government officials.

“Now they admit that there are crimes being committed. Did they ask us kung kulang kami ng tao? Did they do something on their level na pwede nilang gawin? Sige lang sila tira, ginawa ba nila ang responsibility nila?” Garma told reporters.

Garma said maintaining peace and order is also the burden of local government officials, not just the police. Thus, she encouraged them to support the police in any way.

Governor Hilario Davide III, chairman of the Regional Peace and Order Council-7, earlier agreed with Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s statement that Cebu is becoming a “criminal city,” owing to the series of killings here recently. Cebu City Councilor Pastor Jun Alcover also denounced the rising death toll.

From Wednesday night to Thursday dawn, alone, 15 people were killed in police operations and shooting incidents across Metro Cebu.

Ten of those were said to have resisted arrest during the implementation of warrants of arrest against them during a metro-wide police anti-criminality sweep called “One-Time, Bigtime.” The other five were killed in the shooting in Malubog.

“Imbes na nagtutulungan, we are giving judgment instead of solutions. It will not do good. It will not solve the problem,” said Garma.

Malubog Probe

Garma admitted that as of yesterday, police remained clueless on who could have staged the killings in the mountain barangay of Cebu City. However, she assured that their tracker team is working to check on the identities and location of the perpetrators.

For now, investigation centers on piecing up all information regarding the shooting and the gathering of all evidences. Police are also doing background checking on the five fatalities, as well as the two survivors.

Garma said they were able to extract information from their talks with the survivors that can be useful to the investigation.

For Davide and Alcover, it would be best that the National Bureau of Investigation-7 and the CHR-7 lead the investigation into the Malubog incident.

The idea of a parallel investigation does not, however, sit well with Garma.

“Kami man ang mandated sa pag-investigate. Even if they will investigate magpadayon gihapon mi. How come parallel investigation nga iba man ang objective ng investigation nila?” she said.

“Kami ang focus namin is to identify who killed them, gather the evidence, trace the suspects and sue them,” she added. — JMD (FREEMAN)