7 SAF men charged for killing of 4 hunters

ANTIPOLO CITY - Multiple murder charges were filed with the city prosecutor’s office yesterday against seven members of the police Special Action Force (SAF), who gunned down four hunters whom they had mistaken as communist rebels last Sunday.

Police filed the charges based on the complaint of the relatives of the four victims - Juan Maguiza, 38; Domeng Aniceto, 30; Emiliano de la Rosa, 46, and his son Reynaldo, 26.

Maguiza’s father, Juan, and De la Rosa’s other son, Jonathan, told police investigators that the four victims, all residents of Sitio San Ysiro, Barangay San Jose this city, were hunting wild boars in Sitio Kasunugan at the boundary of Rizal and Quezon when the SAF team peppered them with bullets.

The victims sustained gunshot wounds in their backs, and died on the spot.

Charged were Senior Inspector Erickson Dilag, the SAF team leader; PO2s Ronald Cuya, Ernesto Bautista, Gatmar Jatalis and Pablito de la Cruz, and PO1s Glen Salcedo and Crispin Cultinio, all based at the SAF headquarters at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig.

Initial investigation showed that the SAF team were on a test mission when they encountered the four hunters at 9:45 a.m. last Sunday.

The police team claimed the hunters opened fire at them first. — Non Alquitran