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By Anthony Vargas and JeaNnette
Andrade
, Reporters
THE Armed Forces on Wednesday
insisted that the hundreds of murders of activists are products of
an ongoing purge within the ranks of the communist underground
movement.
The AFP Public Information chief,
Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, said that the military has enough
documents and evidence tagging the New People’s Army (NPA) as
behind in the killings.
“We have documents to show that
in the NPA there has been purging; as a matter of fact they have
admitted that before,” Bacarro told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo.
The AFP official said that the
NPA has already apologized to the families of the victims of the
“internal” purging, which the military says spanned decades.
However, Bacarro refused to
comment on the statement of UN Special Rapportuer, Philip Alston,
that the military is in a state of denial over the extrajudicial
killings.
“We cannot comment on that. . .
. We cannot contest that because that is his opinion . . . it will
be the executive who will be commenting on that. It’s beyond the
AFP to comment right now,” Bacarro said.
The official said the AFP has
fully cooperated with the UN investigator, with members of the
European Union team and with investigation done by the Philippine
National Police (PNP).
Citing the report of PNP Task
Force Usig, Bacarro said only four AFP personnel were involved in
over hundreds of cases of killings recorded since the Arroyo
administration took to power in 2001.
The PNP spokesman, Chief Supt.
Samuel Pagdilao Jr., took exception to Alston’s remarks that the
police investigation relied heavily on witness statements and
disregarded forensics, saying the Crime Laboratory Service (CLS) of
the PNP forms part of Task Force Usig.
He said Alston confirmed police
claims that some of the killings are attributable to the local
communist movement.
Task Force Usig commander and
Director for Investigation and Detective Management Chief Supt.
Geary Barrias said the police would continue to use the phrase
“unexplained killings” because the phrase “extrajudicial
killings” hints at a systematic pattern sanctioned by higher
authorities.
“There is no proof of that and
we would rather use “unexplained” at this point,” Barrias told
The Manila Times.
Task Force Usig insisted that
Oplan Bushfire is genuine.
“We have filed cases against
NPA [New People’s Army] personalities who did the killings where
victims are suspected to have absconded from the movement,”
Barrias said.
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