Obstruction raps poised vs uncooperative officials

The Department of Justice (DOJ) warned yesterday that military and government officials in Oriental Mindoro who refuse to cooperate in the investigation into the killings of two human rights activists there, face charges of obstruction of justice.

This, as Justice Undersecretary Jose Calida said an official of the Army’s 204th Infantry Brigade has denied any involvement of any of their men in the April 20 incident in Barangay Tambong, Gloria, Oriental Mindoro, where residents were mauled, intimidated and abducted.

Calida, head of the task force probing the killings, earlier said that no anti-communist vigilantes were behind the murders of Eden Marcellana and Eddie Gumanoy, as earlier believed, and that the perpetrators of the April 20 incident might be involved.

Calida asked Col. Juanito Gomez, deputy commander of the 204th IB, to furnish the DOJ with the names of his men who possibly responded in Barangay Tambong.

In a letter to Mario Menor, chief of the National Bureau of Investigation office in Calapan City, Lt. Col. Reynaldo Cabigao, acting brigade adjutant, said no names have surfaced.

"The persons involved/witnesses to the incident are in a better position to identify these alleged military personnel who were involved in the incident," Cabigao said in his letter.

Earlier, Calida quoted witnesses as saying that at least four uniformed men carrying Armalites and M-16 rifles and on board a military jeepney responded in Barangay Tambong.

The jeepney had no license plate but bore the words "SF Tabak Kaagapay," which is identified with the Army’s special forces on "friendly operations."

Calida said at least six armed men in civilian clothes arrived in Barangay Tambong on board a motorcycle and a passenger jeepney at about 6 p.m. of April 20.

They went after suspected members and sympathizers of the New People’s Army and as they began mauling them, other residents sought the help of barangay officials and the local police, who were not able to do anything because of intimidation.

But as the armed men were preparing to leave, the passenger jeepney they were using malfunctioned. One of them was seen using a handheld radio to seek assistance.

The uniformed men on board the military jeepney responded, fetching those in civilian clothes and towing the passenger jeepney, Calida said.

But Cabigao said no unit of the 204th IB reported or claimed that one of their vehicles was used to tow a passenger jeepney in Barangay Tambong on the night of April 20.

But he said they would submit the list of their vehicles, drivers, service firearms and other particulars to help in the investigation.

"In view of this denial, we will now confront them with contrary evidence and let them explain why they are issuing this kind of statement which to us would obstruct the investigation," Calida said.

Calida said the task force has the full backing of human rights groups who can assist them in tracking down possible witnesses.

He said the slain human rights activists, as members of a fact-finding mission, went to Barangay Tambang to document the alleged military abuses.

On April 22, the bodies of Marcellana and Gumanoy were found in a bamboo grove a few meters away from the highway in Bansud town. They were riding a rented van when ski mask-wearing men claiming to belong to the anti-communist Alsa Masa group, abducted them and three companions.