MANILA, Philippines ? All 17 members of the Highway Patrol Group involved in the Dec. 5 Parañaque City shootout finally appeared at the
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) public hearing Friday, but declined to testify by invoking their right to remain silent.
?It is their human right to remain silent,? lawyer Hector Corpuz told the commission sitting en banc. He cited Supreme Court decisions that allowed the accused to invoke the right.
However, CHR chair Leila de Lima reminded Corpuz that the policemen were not being treated as suspects and thus raised doubt if the lawyer could argue using the High Court?s decision.
After the policemen and their lawyers left, a witness testified how a police operative ordered his companions to disable a vehicle they suspected to be the getaway vehicle of the robbers.
Later, the witness heard that they had killed ?the driver of the getaway vehicle? who turned out to be Alfonso ?Jun? de Vera, whose 7-year-old daughter, Lia Allana, was also shot dead.
The PNP?s Special Action Force and Southern Police District had insisted in the previous public hearings that it was the robbers in a white Toyota Revo van who shot at the De Veras who were in their Isuzu Crosswind vehicle.
However, this was disputed by two witnesses who testified yesterday. Their testimonies backed the claim of a witness in last January?s hearing that only police operatives were present in the area where the De Veras were shot dead.
One of the witnesses said he saw men in fatigue uniforms, black long sleeved shirts, bonnets, and vests with the letters ?RSAF? or Regional Special Action Force in the area where the De Veras were shot.
The witness said the cops ordered all the people in the area to take cover at the height of the shootout.
?Suddenly, another vehicle was coming and a police officer issued the orders to flatten its tires. I saw the vehicle turning back. There was a round of shots,? the witness narrated in Filipino.
The witness added that he saw a man in a black long sleeved shirt about to shoot something on the ground, hidden by a parked jeepney.
