Presidential candidate Leody de Guzman (Photo from his Facebook page)
MANILA, Philippines — Presidential candidate and labor leader Leodegario “Ka Leody” de Guzman on Wednesday said he would file charges against those responsible for shooting at him, his party mates and supporters who were visiting an indigenous peoples (IP) community in Quezon town, Bukidnon, last Tuesday.
“There’s not even a warning shot. Dialogue is not the norm in [that part of] Mindanao, the IPs who went there were just attacked outright,” De Guzman told reporters upon arrival at Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
He said the filing of the case would be handled by lawyers of the Partido Lakas ng Masa.
De Guzman’s running mate, Walden Bello, said soldiers who were already close to the site did not move to protect the unarmed people who were attacked.
“They were just there watching,” Bello said.
De Guzman claimed the shooters were the security personnel of Quezon Mayor Pablo Lorenzo III, adding that the latter is the general manager of the development corporation that currently occupies the 995-hectare ancestral domain of the Manobo community in the area.
The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) has recognized the Manobos’ ancestral domain, De Guzman said. However, the tribe’s formal title to the land is taking a long time to be issued.
The Philippine National Police, meanwhile, is still in the dark on what really transpired in the shooting incident where five people were injured, four of them members of the Manobo-Pulangihon indigenous tribe.
In a statement on Wednesday, Brig. Gen. Roderick Augustus Alba, PNP public information office chief, said they were “conducting a deeper investigation.”
Police Brig. Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr., regional police director for Northern Mindanao, said in a statement that he had directed the provincial director of the Bukidnon police “to personally look into the circumstances and conduct an in-depth investigation and gather more details that will give clarity to the incident.”
Tossing blame
The PNP essentially blamed De Guzman’s camp for the standstill in its investigation.
“Details remain sketchy, since according to our initial investigation, there is no proper coordination with the authorities about their visit to the property with a standing court case,” Alba said.
“We would like to remind our candidates and the public at large that it is important that their activities are coordinated with the PNP so we can provide security assistance and prevent any form of violence,” he added.
“The reason for the presence of presidential candidate Leody de Guzman and his party in the area cannot be ascertained and there was no coordination made with the authorities by his group,” according to Acorda.
However, De Guzman said authorities knew in advance about the activity he and his party mates were having with community leaders, pointing out that there were soldiers and policemen stationed near the area who witnessed the incident.
Bello questioned why it took so long for the police and the military to declare the crime scene.
“They said the investigation just started today, but they could not do anything because they said they could not identify the suspects,” he said.
The police and the military were aware of the 100 armed men under the Quezon mayor and could have immediately disarmed them and started the investigation after the incident happened on Tuesday, Bello said.
At the televised Laging Handa public briefing on Wednesday, Philippine National Police chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos said the incident seemed not election-related.
“The initial investigation showed the guard there opened fire because a group of people wanted to enter the area and he could not prevent them so he fired a warning shot, and unfortunately there were several who got hit,” Carlos said, adding that the report that reached him stated that incident stemmed from a property dispute.
“Now, is this connected with the presence of a presidential aspirant there? We cannot yet see a connection. It just so happened that he was there. Was he the target? No. Is this an election-related incident? We have no indication that would say that this is connected with the election,” he added.
Vice President Leni Robredo’s camp on Wednesday condemned the shooting incident.
In separate statements, Robredo’s spokesperson Barry Gutierrez and her running mate Sen. Francis Pangilinan called on authorities to investigate the incident and offered assistance if needed.
Davao City Mayor and vice presidential candidate Sara Duterte also denounced the shooting, saying her camp had already written a letter to the Commission on Elections to investigate reports of election fraud and violence.
“Of course, all election violence, we condemn that. We already wrote the Comelec a general letter, if there is any allegation or incident, they should open all of that with an official inquiry,” she told reporters in Batangas City on Wednesday.
—WITH REPORTS FROM RYAN D. ROSAURO, GERMELINA LACORTE, NESTOR CORRALES, AND KRIXIA SUBINGSUBING
RELATED STORIES
Leody nearly hit, 5 hurt as gunfire greets sortie
Premature to say shooting incident involving ‘Ka Leody’ is election related — PNP
Ka Leody to sue mayor over shooting incident in Bukidnon