The Philippine National Police will look into allegations that policemen were behind the Aug. 29 killing of nine men in Kabacan, Cotabato, its newly appointed chief said on Wednesday.
“We will come up with an investigating team,” Lt. Gen. Camilo Cascolan said in an interview over CNN Philippines.
Quoting witnesses, Maj. Peter Pinalgan Jr., Kabacan police chief, said the victims were flagged down by unidentified gunmen who demanded identification cards from them.
“When they all alighted from their respective motorcycles, they were shot several times,” Pinalgan said.
At least two victims, before they died, were able to relay to their relatives that the police held and attacked them.
Aside from Katindig Kahayawan, 17, who was able to call his father before he was shot along with eight others, Naser Guiaman, 17, had told his relatives that their attackers were policemen. Guiaman died in the hospital four hours after the attack.
“The dying declaration of the ninth victim alleged that policemen were behind the killing. His statement will be very important to the case,” said lawyer Erlan Deluvio, director of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Soccsksargen (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos).
Deluvio said he would be docketing the attack as “extrajudicial killing.”
Col. Henry Villar, provincial police director, said the police would leave the CHR to do its job and conduct a probe.
But Villar stressed that police officers were not involved, noting that the gunmen remained at large.
—Reports from Nestor Corrales, Edwin Fernandez and Taher Solaiman