North Cotabato police chief sacked over Kidapawan

Pregnant women, elderly detained without warrants – CHR

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ricardo Marquez ordered the relief of the North Cotabato provincial police director as separate investigations over last week’s bloody clashes between farmers and the police in Kidapawan City resumed yesterday.

The relief of Sr. Supt. Alexander Tagum took effect Wednesday.

“This is a matter of procedure… It’s just an administrative relief as a matter of procedure when an investigation is underway to ensure transparency,” Marquez said.

Tagum was the ground commander of the police team that cleared a portion of the national highway in Kidapawan City where thousands of farmers staged a protest rally that ended in a bloody confrontation with the police that tried to disperse their gathering.

The Senate committee on justice and human rights yesterday launched its investigation into the incident that led to the deaths of three people with scores wounded last April 1.

At the Senate hearing, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) told lawmakers that its initial findings were “disturbing.”

According to CHR Commissioner Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana, several pregnant women, children and even the elderly were among 81 detained by the provincial PNP for taking part in the rally.

Gana added the police filed charges of direct assault against the suspects.

“I am appealing to the PNP to please individually review their cases and see if there are indeed evidence against these people,” Gana told the lawmakers led by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III in the hearing held in Davao City.

Tagum, for his part, stressed the court has yet to issue the warrants of arrest for the 81.

Tagum also said the policemen were acting in self-defense since they were being attacked by the protesters.

He pointed to the drone video footage that showed policemen being attacked by the rallyists.

Gana, however, disputed the claims of self-defense.

“We are still vetting information and evidence that were given to us. But there are indeed disturbing findings which we are still pursuing in terms of the investigation,” she said.

Gana stressed in particular why the PNP had to pick up and detain pregnant women, senior citizens and children.

“I have talked to three pregnant women in the detention center,” Gana said. “We have observed that a lot of senior citizens have indeed been picked up, both women and men. There are questions whether they are even directly involved or the ones who committed the direct assault.” 

Gana gave assurance that the CHR would provide the Senate committee copies of their report as soon as it is completed within two weeks. 

Thousands of farmers were demanding relief from the severe drought that has been gripping North Cotabato province since late last year.

The dispersal by the police left at least three protesters dead and close to 200 more, including policemen, wounded, some of them seriously.

Both sides have accused the other of instigating the violence, although some policemen were seen heavily armed during the dispersal.

Pimentel said the PNP should review the manual or guidelines of policemen in carrying firearms during protest actions.

“It needs to be reviewed because there seems to be a conflict between what is provided in the law and what is indicated in the PNP manual,” Pimentel said.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano added PNP chief Marquez and Interior Secretary Mel Sarmiento should have taken over the crisis in Kidapawan.

“The law does not distinguish between civil disturbance management team and the security forces,” Cayetano said. 

Cayetano also asked the Armed Forces of the Philippines to shed light on the role of soldiers in the bloody dispersal of the protesting farmers.

Several groups deplored how the farmers were badly treated during the dispersal.

Kilusang Mambubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) spokesman Gerry Alborne told the committee that they were harassed by the policemen during the dispersal and mopping up operations when several of their members were arrested during a raid at the United Methodist Church where the farmers sought refuge. 

Overkill

Marquez explained the relief order on Tagum was based on information that the policemen involved in the dispersal fired their guns indiscriminately, hitting some of the protesters.

“There is already an acknowledgment from the PNP that some personnel deployed in the LEO (law enforcement operation) fired their weapons,” Marquez said. “We are waiting for the result of the investigation to find out their reasons for using their firearms.”

Tagum, for his part, said the farmers were given several minutes to disperse before violence broke out.

“We emphasized to the victims that we will be dispersing them, I used a megaphone to warn the protesters, not firing (warning) shots,” he said. 

Tagum told the committee that the farmers started throwing rocks at the policemen that triggered the violent confrontation.

He stressed it was a “judgment call” on the part of the beleaguered policemen on how to deal with a hostile group.

Tagum admitted ordering his men to help their colleagues who were being attacked by the protesters. He said he takes full responsibility for what happened.

Tagum added some 30 policemen involved in dispersal were made to undergo paraffin tests to determine who fired their weapons.

The investigation made by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) revealed a total of 83 slugs of different calibers were recovered from the scene.

DILG Undersecretary Peter Irving Corvera pointed out some of the slugs recovered were not from the official firearms of the police.

The PNP reported two protesters were killed and 10 wounded in the clash, but some groups supporting the farmers claimed three protesters were killed, 116 wounded and 78 arrested in the violent dispersal.

“A rookie policeman is still fighting for his life with a cracked skull after repeatedly being beaten with rock while already fallen and lying injured,” Corvera said.

Corvera said among the protesters injured in the scuffle with the police was a suspected leader of the communist New People’s Army (NPA).

A number of military officials based in Manila and in Mindanao identified the wounded protester as Mark Anthony Delgado, alias “Ka Lomer,” a supposed squad leader of the Guerrilla Front 73 of the NPA’s Southern Mindanao Regional Committee.

“On our series of debriefings, Ka Lomer was named by his captured comrades as an NPA leader,” an Army officer said.

Another officer added his unit has information showing Delgado was among the wounded in the violent clash with policemen in Kidapawan last April 1.

The same officer said Delgado is an active NPA rebel.

“He is in our list of active NPA rebels operating in various areas Southern Mindanao,” a senior military officer based in Manila added.

The AFP, however, is still conducting verification on the real identity of Delgado.

“We can’t confirm this until it has been validated and confirmed,” AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said.

Padilla said they would verify the identity of Delgado with the PNP.

Properly addressed

In the same hearing, North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza insisted the government had properly addressed the problems of the farmers.

Mendoza said mitigation measures were actually carried out as early as last year with regard to the expected onslaught of El Niño.

“We have prepared for it. We have always reminded our local executives like our barangay captains and our municipal officials to be prudent in the expenditures,” she said. 

She also pointed out the provincial government had implemented different programs in addressing the effects of El Niño on the farmers. 

“We have the sagip hayop program, we have the vegetable seed distribution, including rice and corn seeds, especially those drought-resistance seeds,” she said.

Mendoza said the provincial government also carried out cloud seeding programs to address the effects of the long dry spell.

With the available funds of the province, Mendoza said they were also able to carry out medical missions three times a week to check on the health of the farmers and their families. 

Malacañang yesterday offered the untouched fund of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council as a way to provide relief to the Kidapawan farmers, in case everything else fails.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said both the national and local governments have allocations and contingency measures adopted in light of the predicted El Nino problem in the countryside – from rice distribution to cash-for-work programs.

Abad, however, didn’t say how much is the whole NDRRMC amount.

Abad also refuted claims by Cayetano that part of the problem was the delay in the release of funds for El Niño.

He said government agencies concerned have their respective calamity and emergency funds embedded in their regular budgets, on top of the Quick Response Fund.

Funds in these government offices are included in the “comprehensive release” of the budget for the agencies, citing for instance the decision of the Department of Social Welfare and Development to implement a cash-for-work program and food packs distribution as early as November 2015.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala also belied claims there was a failure to prepare the agriculture sector for the dry spell despite the available funds, thus leading to the incident in Kidapawan.

“If it’s true that they have nothing to eat, prices should have shot up, but that never happened,” Alcala pointed out.

“It means that the government has implemented the necessary interventions,” he said.

The Department of Agriculture has provided P2.7 billion for El Niño mitigation assistance after the state weather bureau announced the weather phenomenon in 2015.

Alcala said the department has provided P980 million worth of El Niño interventions, including seed subsidies for the first quarter alone.

“We advised the farmers in areas with poor irrigation to plant crops requiring less water. We also encouraged those in irrigated areas to plant hybrid rice varieties which yield 25 to 40 percent higher than traditional varieties,” Alcala said. –Louise Maureen Simeon, Jaime Laude, John Unson, Delon Porcalla, Paolo Romero, Janvic Mateo, Edu Punay, Marvin Sy, Rhodina Villanueva