Gory details of rally dispersal aired at Senate probe

FARMERS climb aboard a dump truck that brought them home to Magpet town, North Cotabato province, after the bloody dispersal of a rally in Kidapawan City. Two protesters were killed and at least 100 others, including policemen, were wounded. Williamor A. Magbanua/Inquirer Mindanao

DAVAO CITY—Farmer Ebao Sulang was inside the compound of the United Methodist Church when a scuffle broke out between antiriot police and drought-stricken farmers in Kidapawan City on April 1.

“When the gunfire started, I tried to look for my son but I cannot go out because of the police,” Sulang said during the Senate inquiry in Davao City on Thursday.

Sulang, a farmer from the village of Malibatuan in Arakan Valley, said he and his 22-year-old son, Darwin, attended the series of consultations with farmers to talk about the effects of the dry spell in the province.

Fear of not surviving the long drought made father and son determined to join the barricade to demand urgent food aid from the government.

“That is why we decided to go down from our village to join the barricade in Kidapawan City. We only wanted rice so we can survive,” Sulang said.

It was total chaos after police opened fire on the farmers. Almost everyone tried to rush into the church compound, the farmer said.

Sulang said he frantically searched for his son when the crowd started running toward the Methodist compound but failed to find him.

Even inside the compound, he searched in vain for Darwin.

It was on April 3, three days after the bloodshed, when the farmer discovered the fate of his young son.

“I saw a group of people huddled together watching a video of the incident. I took a peek at what they were watching and I saw a familiar figure slumped on the ground. There was blood oozing from his head. It was my son,” Sulang said.

A rescuer wearing a shirt with the markings of the Department of Health on the back was trying to help Darwin, Sulang said.

Feeling his world collapsing, Sulang sought the help of the farmers in his search for his son. They eventually found Darwin in a morgue.

“When I entered the morgue, I saw him naked except for a piece of cloth covering his genitals. His head was cracked open. I was really hurt. Why would they do that? I can accept that they killed him but is it necessary to open the head of my son?” Sulang said.

In the death certificate, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer, the younger Sulang was declared dead at 12:15 p.m. on April 1 by Dr. Edgar Gantuanco of the Kidapawan Doctors Hospital Inc.

The immediate cause was cardio-respiratory arrest secondary to injury due to beating.

Lawyer Rey Cortez, who is representing the farmers, said results of another autopsy showed Sulang died from a gunshot wound in the head.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano asked why there was a discrepancy in the medical certificate and the result of the autopsy.

“Why is it that in the death certificate there was no mention of a gunshot wound? It (certificate) only mentioned puncture wound?” Cayetano said.

The senator asked how many policemen fired their guns. “We are still going through that,” was the answer from the police.

Cayetano also asked why only 30 policemen were subjected to paraffin tests when all policemen deployed that day should have been investigated as well.

“Until now you are not telling the committee that this is a protest rally not a rebellion. It was a protest rally and you were not allowed to carry firearms,” Cayetano said at the hearing.

Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares on Friday said he still could not understand why farmers had to take to the street to demand food when based on the national budget, the province of North Cotabato had at least P321 million in calamity funds for 2016.

“The farmers’ demand is only 15,000 sacks of rice, which would amount to only P27 million,” said Colmenares.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said the perception that no aid was given was wrong.

She said in March, 7,000 families in Tulunan town received rice and 30,000 more in Magpet got their rations.

She said, as the drought raged, she decided to ask the national government in March for additional help.

Taliño-Mendoza said the province had about P57 million but this would not be enough. Karlos Manlupig, with a report from Judy Quiros, Inquirer Mindanao