LABO, Camarines Norte – The son of a slain barangay captain in this far-flung town has asked President Aquino to investigate the military for its role in the killing of his mother which he tagged as a case of extrajudicial killing.
“She was a victim of extrajudicial killing and we want no less than swift justice,” Relly Bermas, 26, said in an interview here on Friday.
Relly’s mother, Merlyn Bermas, 49, head of Barangay Malaya, was gunned down on Aug. 7 by two unidentified gunmen riding in tandem on a motorcycle at Maharlika Highway in Barangay Anameam in Labo.
Superintendent Efren Tublan, acting police chief of Labo, said Merlyn was aboard a motorcycle hauler with four others, including a 4-year-old boy, when she was attacked. She suffered bullet wounds on her back while the boy was shot in the head. Both were dead on arrival in the hospital. A motorcycle hauler is a motorcycle fitted with a sidecar but without a roof.
“We ask the President to give us attention. We hope that her (Merlyn’s) killing would not be on the long list of unsolved cases,” said Relly.
He said his mother had been receiving death threats since testifying that Benjamin Mancera, a farmer killed in a clash between communist rebels and government troops in their village in Feb. 25, was not a member of the New People’s Army (NPA). Reports said there were two children who died in that encounter.
The killing of his mother was part of the harassment of their village by the military, which, he said, had considered them and other villagers as either rebels or rebel sympathizers.
Malaya is 9 kilometers away from the national highway but 49 km away from the town proper of Labo and 60 km away from the capital town of Daet. It is is accessible via a farm-to-market road that cuts through hills and creeks.
Mary Jane Oresa, mother of the killed boy, was sitting behind the driver of the motorcycle hauler, while Merlyn, who was seated behind her, carried her son.
“We initially thought that the tire of the motorcycle exploded and caused the loud bang until I realized that [Merlyn] had been shot after the third gunfire.
Oresa, however, could not identify the attackers as their faces were concealed by bonnets and helmets.
Tublan said they were ruling out robbery because the merchandise the victim was transporting was untouched. He said they were also ruling out politics as the next in rank barangay official to Merlyn was her relative.
The Army’s 9th Infantry Division based in Bicol, ruled out the involvement of the military in the killings and the death threats against Merlyn.
Major Angelo Guzman, public information officer of the 9th ID, said “it is not true that (Merlyn) Bermas testified that Mancera was not a member of the NPA. In fact, she was among those who testified that the February incident was a legitimate encounter, (which was) to our advantage,” he said.
Guzman said the military would cooperate with the police in solving the murder of Bermas and the killing of the boy.