Task Force Usig excludes 669 cases in Karapatan list

MANILA, Philippines – The Task Force Usig that leads the investigation into killings of militants and journalists said yesterday it has excluded 669 incidents recorded by the militant human rights group Karapatan from the police list after the victims were verified to be either alive, non-existent or killed for non-political motives.

Interior Assistant Secretary Danilo Valero said Task Force Usig reported that while Karapatan had listed a total of 836 slain activists and mediamen as of May 2007, only 121 were included in the police list, 46 are still undergoing verification, while 669 were excluded.

Valero said 47 out of the 669 cases excluded, were false reports; 34 pertained to non-existent persons as certified by barangay officials and local civil registrars; six were supposed victims who turned out to be alive; 97 were victims of legitimate armed encounters; 23 were Abu Sayyaf terrorists killed in the foiled Bicutan jailbreak; 15 were slain in agrarian disputes, nine in labor disputes and 20 others over personal motives; four were suicides; and one was a victim of an insane relative.

Valero said the remaining 411 excluded cases involved 309 incidents of victims with no known affiliations; 23 civilians killed by the communist rebels; nine slain by the MILF “lost command,” two by vigilante groups, and other cases that involved private motives connected with illegal drugs, gambling, squatting, illegal logging, mistaken identity, robbery with homicide, rape with homicide, tribal war, and business rivalry.