Pa can’t bear watching video of ‘barbaric way’ his son was killed

Screengrab from alleged SAF shooting video

CATARMAN, Northern Samar—Flavio Sagonoy doesn’t have plans to watch the video that showed how his son, PO1 Joseph Sagonoy, was finished off by a gunman in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

He said he could not bear watching the “barbaric way” his son was murdered.

“Why did they have to do that?” asked the 52-year-old coconut farmer from Silvino Lubos town.

Flavio said a son based in Manila called him up on Wednesday and told him about the video being circulated on social media, which showed Joseph was still alive when he was finished off by two gunshots in the face.

He told the Inquirer that he didn’t want to see the video. (There is no Internet connection in Silvino Lubos, a fourth-class municipality [annual income between P25 million and P35 million])

“He was still alive but he was killed like a pig,” Flavio lamented.

Joseph was a member of the 55th Special Action Company, which served as the blocking force of the Special Action Force (SAF) in its operation to arrest two high profile terrorists.

Identify video owner

In Manila, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) urged the public to help authorities in identifying who uploaded the video of the execution of the wounded SAF trooper in Mamasapano on Jan. 25.

The CHR said the public should not only condemn the footage but also assist the agency in naming the one who took and uploaded the video on the Internet.

The commission is conducting its own investigation of the Mamasapano incident, focusing on human rights and international humanitarian law.

“The CHR calls upon the public to help identify the original owner or ‘uploader’ of the video so this person may be made to account fully before the law,” said CHR Chair Loretta Rosales.

The Philippine National Police also wants to know the person who took the video and the one who uploaded it on the Internet.

The PNP spokesman, Chief Supt. Generoso Cerbo Jr., said the police anticybercrime group would take the lead in the probe of the video.

Flavio recalled that when he received his son’s remains, he noticed how Joseph was brutally killed.

Joseph, he pointed out, suffered gunshot wounds in the head and mouth, indicating his son was shot at close range.

Helpless but still shot

Rogelio Sagonoy, Flavio’s younger brother, expressed outrage at how his nephew was killed after seeing the video.

“I cried when I saw the video. What they did to my nephew was too much. The government should wage war on them. They don’t have souls,” he said.

“I saw his legs were moving. He was still alive. He was already helpless but he was still shot. He had many gunshot wounds.”

Rogelio said it was better that Joseph’s parents not see the video because “they would not be able to bear it.”

Joseph is the second of four children of Flavio and wife, Lorna, coconut farmers from Barangay (village) Cabugnaan.

The family is a beneficiary of the government’s cash transfer program, which is aimed at helping the poorest of the poor by giving them a monthly stipend provided they take their children to health centers, send them to school and attend family development sessions.

After graduating from high school, Joseph went to Barangay Nenita, Mondragon town, and asked the help of his uncle Rogelio so he could go on to college.

Rogelio said Joseph had wanted to be a policeman since he was a boy.

Because his nephew was bent on finishing college, Rogelio agreed to help him.

Criminology graduate

Joseph took a BS Criminology course at the University of Eastern Philippines in Catarman.

Rogelio said Joseph never complained even if there were times when the money he sent was not enough.

After graduating in 2010, Joseph went to Manila to join the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police.

“He had no one to back him up. He passed on his own merit,” said Rogelio.

Joseph was already a SAF commando when he returned to Barangay Nenita to thank his uncle.

Rogelio recalled that when he saw Joseph, he felt proud of his nephew. “I was happy and told him to do well in his job … change the image of the police.”

Breadwinner

In the four years Joseph was in the service, he became the family breadwinner. Now, he is gone.

“We are asking justice for Joseph. The souls of the 44 dead SAF members cannot rest if they cannot get justice,” Rogelio said.

This was also the demand of the family of another SAF policeman who was killed in the Maguindanao encounter.

Myrna Bedua said she could not stomach how her nephew, PO2 Glen Bedua, was killed by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

She pointed out that Glen had suffered multiple gunshot wounds in the head and in the body.

Her nephew left behind his wife, Adie, and three children, the youngest being only 11 months old.

Myrna said she didn’t see the video circulating on social media because there was no Internet connection in her hometown in Dulag town, Leyte.

“But a friend informed us about it (video). We are angry at how they were killed. The manner was so inhuman and barbaric,” she said.

“We are all mad. We just hope that their deaths will not be in vain, that justice be served to all of them and all responsible be brought to our courts,” she said.

HR violation

Rosales said the video would be used in CHR’s own investigation of the incident, with its digital characteristics to undergo forensic examination so it can qualify as evidence.

The footage, she said, showed grave human rights and international humanitarian law violations as it showed the commission of murder and desecration of lifeless bodies.

The CHR also reminded the public not to spread the video out of respect for the families of the 44 SAF commandos killed in Mamasapano.–With a report from Julie M. Aurelio