CHR to probe death of botanist

MANILA, Philippines –  The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) will conduct a separate inquiry into the death of noted botanist Leonardo Co and his two companions even if a fact-finding panel of the Department of Justice (DOJ) had cleared the military of any liability for their deaths.

CHR chairperson Loretta Rosales said she is not yet convinced that Army troops have nothing to do with the death of the prominent botanist.

“We are gathering all the reports and we are going to have our public inquiry on the 26th and 27th (of January) in Tacloban… I can talk to the soldiers who were involved in the shooting because we want to get their statements,” she said in a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo.

“Why should I be totally convinced (that the military is not liable for the deaths)? I’m still gathering the positions. In fact we had listened to one witness who was able to survive and he said that it only came from one direction, it came from the military,” she said.

“We are still trying to find out whether number one, there was crossfire or not, so we have to gather all the reports from the different sectors. If there was no crossfire, where did the bullet come from?” she said.

A DOJ fact-finding team cleared on Thursday Army troops of liability in the deaths of Co and his two guides, Sofronio Cortez and Julius Borromeo, as they were gathering seedlings in a forest in Kananga, Leyte last Nov. 15.

The panel concluded that the bullets that killed the three came from the lines of the New People’s Army (NPA).

The fact-finding team said the soldiers could not be charged with criminal acts because their activities in the area were due to a “legitimate military action.”

It also cited the liability of Lopez-owned Energy Development Corp. (EDC) for its alleged failure to secure their personnel even if it was aware of the presence of rebels in the area. Co used to work as a consultant of the EDC.

The EDC said it was dismayed by the team’s findings and insisted that it provides security to its employees, consultants and contractors.

Rosales said their inquiry will also seek to determine if there are problems in the security policies of the EDC and the military.

The military claimed the three were killed in the crossfire between soldiers of the Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion and NPA rebels. Some sectors, however, believe that the three were shot after soldiers mistook them for insurgents.

The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) slammed the DOJ panel’s findings which it said “reek of unsubstantiated conclusions and sloppy investigative work.”            – With Rhodina Villanueva