By Carlos H. Conde
Cyberdyaryo
Published: Aug. 28, 2001
DAVAO CITY – Malacanang should create an independent fact-finding body to investigate the allegation that some elements within the armed forces have been colluding with the Abu Sayyaf. The creation of such a body, the proponents say, should settle the issue of partiality and grandstanding that bedevil the investigations being conducted by separate committees of both houses of Congress.
Fr. Eliseo Mercado Jr. OMI, a leading Mindanao peace advocate, thinks that the independent body similar to the Davide Commission that investigated the series of coup attempts by renegade soldiers in the ’80s would be “the best thing” to get to the bottom of the story.
“It’s high time to get a Davide-type commission to look into this plague (alleged collusion),” the priest said.
Fr. Mercado believes that it is not the duty and responsibility of the Senate or the Lower House to probe deep into the allegation. “It is not good that while the Senate and the House continue to investigate the said collusion, President Arroyo comes out with a statement clearing the AFP of collusion with the Abu Sayyaf on the basis, it is said, of ‘internal investigations.’
“The most we expect is for her to wait for the Senate and House public hearings. But the best (thing to do is) create an independent body to do the investigation without much fanfare and grandstanding,” Fr. Mercado said.
The priest was referring to the President’s statement made the other day practically clearing the AFP of the charge by Fr. Cirilo Nacorda, the parish priest of Lamitan town, who first leveled the accusation against at least five AFP officials.
“It is self-serving if the AFP investigates itself and it would do no good since people would consider it suspicious, if not outright partial,” Fr. Mercado said.
No courage or stamina
Evelyn Carias, executive director of the Moro group Khadidja, agreed with Fr. Mercado. She observed that, so far, in the House hearings, “the committee members don’t seem to have the courage nor the stamina to ask the military officials this crucial question: Where were the soldiers when the bandits walked away from the St. Peter’s Church compound?”
She noted that Brig. Gen. Romeo Dominguez and Col. Jovenal Narcise, two of the highest-ranking AFP officials that directly handled the Lamitan siege on June 2, gave evasive answers to the question.
“They kept on insisting that there was no troop pullout on the afternoon of June 2 but they could not categorically answer where the troops were at the time the bandits walked out of the hospital in single file and casually at that,” Carias said.
Carias suspects that the congressmen may not have the intention to question the generals and assign responsibility. Thus, she said, Fr. Mercado’s suggestion could be a good idea, “if only so that Basileños are assured that their effort to come out against the military establishment will not be in vain.”
Around 20 witnesses from Lamitan town have submitted affidavits to the House committee on national defense alleging, among others, that they saw the bandits “escaping” and that an hour and a half before this happened, the soldiers that were deployed around the diocesan compound were ordered to pull out for a briefing.
The Abu Sayyaf occupied the hospital inside the diocesan compound at around 12:15 AM on June 2. They ambushed a convoy of soldiers in front of the St. Peter’s church, killing three and wounding several others. The bandits also killed one of Fr. Nacorda’s soldier-escorts and his driver. And when they left, the Abu Sayyaf took four of the hospital personnel with them.
Reservations on the ground
Before the start of the Senate and House hearings on Fr. Nacorda’s allegations, there were some reservations about the conduct of these hearings.
In an August 13 press statement, the Reverend Fr. Martin Jumoad, the diocesan administrator of the prelature of Isabela City, Basilan, to which the Lamitan parish belongs, raised several concerns. Among them:
After the inquiry, what will the congressmen and senators do with the information they will gather? If it is proven that some military officers are in cahoots with the Abu Sayyaf, will the congressmen and senators bring this matter to the proper forum i.e., the Court? What will happen to those who will stand as witnesses of Fr. Nacorda? Will they be afforded the witness protection program of the Department of Justice knowing that their lives are at stake because they are witnessing against men in uniform?
“It is said that the truth will set us free. May these concerns be given attention by our honorable congressmen and senators so that the people of Basilan will feel that those who are in both houses of Congress are men of dignity, honor and credibility,” Fr. Jumoad said.
Reached for a reaction, Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza told CyberDyaryo that the fears and concerns regarding the congressional hearings should be put to rest once the committees forward to the “proper agencies” the evidence or information that they gather.
But Dureza, a former congressman, admitted that the Senate and House probes could be unnecessary because “ultimately, the investigation should have been done by the agencies tasked to do it,” such as a military tribunal for court martial proceedings against men in uniform allegedly involved in the collusion.
The proposal to create an independent body, he said, would likewise be a “total waste because, if you ask me, it will all be for show, for entertainment. It would become a telenovela.” The bottomline, Dureza pointed out, “is that the proper agencies should handle the investigations.”
Yesterday, Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., chairman of the Senate committee on national defense, said in a TV interview that his committee may merge with the House committee on national defense chaired by Surigao Rep. Prospero Pichay Jr. since the investigations of both committees emanate from the same complaint and they will be talking to the same set of witnesses.
Reghis Romero to the witness stand
On Friday, the House committee announced that it would call to the witness stand contractor Reghis Romero II and the two other Dos Palmas hostages who “escaped” with him at the height of the June 2 siege of Lamitan. Romero’s testimony will be crucial in ascertaining whether ransom money indeed changed hands, as some witnesses in the hospital alleged.
It has been alleged that some military officials were provided a share of the ransom money. It has also been bruited about in Lamitan that the siege was actually meant as a drop off for Romero after he allegedly paid the Abu Sayyaf P10 million in ransom.
Magsaysay said yesterday that the “escape” of Romero and the two others “raises a lot of doubt” that would lead people to conclude that money, indeed, changed hands. Still, the senator cautioned the public not to make any hasty judgments pending the completion of the investigation.
Still, withholding any conclusions at this point would be hard to do considering that, as Fr. Mercado said, “Fr. Nacorda’s claim that there is a real collusion between the Abu Sayyaf and some elements of the AFP is also the claim of the many peoples in Mindanao who are following the tragic saga of the Abu Sayyaf.”
He said everybody knows that there is a “connection” between the payment of ransom or “board and lodging fees” to Abu Sayyaf bandits and the “escape” of hostages. “There are people who are getting rich in the so-called exchange of hostages and ‘escape’,” the Cotabato City-based priest said.
Senate minority leader Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, himself a Mindanawon, has said that he supports Fr. Nacorda. “I will take his word against any self-serving official of the government,” Pimentel said in a message posted on Mindanao1081, a mailing list for Mindanawons.
Meanwhile, the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan also threw its support behind Fr. Nacorda and his fellow Lamiteños “for speaking up against the failure of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to stop the marauding Abu Sayyaf, a fact which has fueled widespread public suspicion that the military is colluding with the bandit group.”
In a statement, Bayan spokesman Renato M. Reyes Jr. said “the people of Lamitan are in the best position to tell the people what really happened in the AFP’s clash with the Abu Sayyaf last June. While witnesses have courageously come forward with their accounts, Congress must make sure that no untoward incident will befall them for telling the truth.”
–CyberDyaryo
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