Homicide charges set vs 8 Coast Guard men

MANILA, Philippines - Eight officers and personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) involved in the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman off Batanes in May last year have been indicted for homicide.

Taipei welcomed the development, but the PCG said it was demoralizing.

The Department of Justice (DOJ), in a resolution released yesterday, said an investigating panel led by Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera found probable cause to file charges of homicide against Commanding Officer Arnold Enriquez de la Cruz and his seven men for the death of fisherman Hung Shih-cheng.

Also recommended charged were Seamen 1st Class (SN1) Edrando Aguila, Mhelvin Bendo II, Andy Golfo, Sunny Masangcay and Henry Solomon; SN2 Nicky Aurello; and Petty Officer 2 Richard Fernandez Corpuz.

The DOJ dismissed the claim of the respondents that they were forced to fire at the Taiwanese fishing boat after it tried to ram their vessel MCS-3001 in the Balintang Channel.

The panel also did not give credence to the claim of the respondents that they should not be held criminally liable for the incident as they were merely performing their lawful duties.

Instead the panel held that the respondents “all acted in unison with the common purpose of firing” at the Taiwanese fishing boat Guang Da Xing No. 28 to force it to submit to inspection by the coast guard.

“In this case, the NPS found no evidence to indicate or prove that the Taiwanese boat posed an imminent or grave danger to the respondents before and during the pursuit,” read the 79-page resolution.

“Absent clear evidence of such, the argument of self-defense cannot prosper in this preliminary investigation where probable cause is all that is needed for the filing of an information in court,” it added. Prosecutor General Claro Arellano approved the resolution.

The DOJ added that the claim of self-defense should be better threshed out in the trial court, in a full-blown hearing.

On the claim by the eight PCG men that they were fulfilling their lawful duty during their deadly encounter with the Taiwanese, the DOJ held that they were not authorized to use deadly force on a potentially hostile vessel under the PCG’s rules of engagement.

The DOJ noted that the respondents “exceeded the performance of lawful duty” when they fired at the Taiwanese fishing vessel.

Falsified information

The DOJ also recommended the indictment of De la Cruz and Bendo for obstruction of justice for signing two falsified monthly gunnery reports submitted by the PCG to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

The DOJ noted the conflicting information in the two reports bearing the same date on the number of ammunition discharged by MCS-3001, a patrol boat belonging to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), on May 9, 2013.

The first report stated that only 36 rounds of ammunition were fired at the Taiwanese fishing boat, while the second report placed the figure at 108.

The NBI, however, pointed out that the actual number of bullets fired was 108.

“The number of bullets expended can spell the difference between necessary or reasonable fire and excessive or indiscriminate. Thus respondents CDR de la Cruz and Bendo II cannot just lamely deny their liability by claiming the differing monthly gunnery report was not intentional and merely brought about by the physically tiring circumstances surrounding their preparation,” the DOJ pointed out.

“The number of ammunition spent in an incident where there is a resulting death or killing will always be material and could in fact change the outcome of any criminal investigation or proceedings that will be undertaken,” it added.

Welcomed, decried

Taiwan, through Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) Political Section Director Andrew Lin, lauded the DOJ’s indictment of the eight PCG men for homicide.

“Our government definitely recognize the adequate action taken by the Philippine government regarding the fatal shooting,” Lin told The STAR.

“We firmly believe through filing of criminal charges and those responsible will be brought to fair trial and justice will be served,” he added.

TECO said Taipei was “reasonable” and was not asking “excessively” from the Philippines in demanding a formal apology and a joint investigation into the shooting.

Taiwan said its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) overlaps with that of the Philippines and insisted that the shooting of the fisherman happened in disputed waters.

A Taiwan investigating team had said that a voyage data recording (VDR) of the incident by the Taiwanese fishermen showed the incident took place within Taiwan’s EEZ.

But TECO would later say Taiwan and the Philippines share EEZ since they overlap.

The PCG, headed by Vice Admiral Rodolfo Isorena, for its part said it is standing by its men but promised to “follow the legal procedure, whatever is mandated for us to do.”

PCG spokesman Commander Armand Balilo said the DOJ’s decision was disheartening, considering that the eight coast guard officers and personnel slapped with homicide charges were just doing their duty during the fatal encounter with the Taiwanese fishermen. The eight are being held at PCG headquarters.

“It is normal on the part of the PCG to feel demoralized because we believe that they were only doing their job. But the PCG is a professional organization and we would always do our job,” Balilo said. The PCG has yet to receive its copy of the DOJ resolution. – Pia Lee-Brago, Evelyn Macairan