DOJ indicts PCG men in Balintang shooting

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has formally indicted eight Philippine Coast Guard officials and personnel involved in the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman off Balintang Channel in May last year.

Prosecutor General Claro Arellano, head of the DOJ’s prosecutorial arm, yesterday confirmed the cases have been filed on March 27 before the regional trial courts of Batanes and Cagayan Valley provinces.

The homicide case was filed before the Batanes RTC, which has jurisdiction over the site of the incident, and the obstruction of justice case before the Cagayan Valley RTC, where the initial investigation was conducted.

PCG spokesman Commander Armand Balilo said the lawyers of indicted Coast Guard men would seek a change of venue of the trial.

Balilo said the eight PCG personnel have hired private lawyers to defend them in court.

Balilo said the PCG has assured the men who have been formally indicted of their full support.

In a 79-page resolution last month, the DOJ investigating panel led by Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera found probable cause to file charges in court against Commanding Officer Arnold Enriquez de la Cruz and his seven men for the death of poaching fisherman Hung Shih-cheng.

Also recommended charged were Seamen 1st Class (SN1) Edrando Aguila, Mhelvin Bendo II, Andy Golfo, Sunny Masangcay and Henry Solomon; SN2 Nicky Aurello; and Petty Officer 2 Richard Fernandez Corpuz.

The DOJ dismissed the claim of respondents that they were forced to fire at the Taiwanese fishing boat after it tried to ram the Filipino vessel.

The panel also did not give credence to the claim of Coast Guard men that they cannot be held criminally liable for the incident as they were merely performing their lawful duties.

Instead the panel held that respondents “all acted in unison with the common purpose of firing” at the Taiwanese fishing boat Guang Da Xing No. 28 force it to submit to MCS-3001’s .

The DOJ added the claim of self-defense should be better left threshed out in trial court, at a full-blown hearing.

As to the claim of fulfillment of lawful duty, the DOJ held that being a hostile vessel per se does not authorize the use of deadly force under the PCG’S rules of engagement.

It noted the firing at the Taiwanese fishing vessel showed the respondents “exceeded the performance of lawful duty.”

The DOJ also recommended the indictment of De la Cruz and Bendo for obstruction of justice, being signatories to the two falsified monthly gunnery reports submitted by the PCG to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

The DOJ noted the conflicting information in the two reports, which bear the same date, as to the number of ammunition expended by MCS-3001, a patrol boat belonging to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), on May 9, 2013.

The first report stated that only 36 rounds of ammunition were fired by the crew at the Taiwanese fishing boat that resulted in the death of the victim.

The NBI found out the actual number of rounds spent was 108.