Army captain denies killing Ilocos activist

BAGUIO CITY — An Army officer tagged by police in the Nov. 28, 2005 killing of an activist in San Esteban, Ilocos Sur has surfaced and denied any hand in the crime.

In a counter-affidavit with the Ilocos Sur prosecutor’s office, Army Capt. Joel Castro claimed that he was in Taguig City in Metro Manila when Jose Manegdeg, a staffer of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, was gunned down.

But lawyer Randy Kinaud, of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance which is assisting Manegdeg’s family, said alibi "is the weakest defense." An eyewitness has identified Castro as the gunman. — Artemio Dumlao