SHIELD AND ROCKS Part of a police shield and rocks are all that remain of the farmers’ protest action which was violently dispersed by police in Kidapawan City on Friday. JOHN PAGADUAN/CONTRIBUTOR/FILE PHOTO
An independent autopsy and external examination of the two men killed in the violent Kidapawan dispersal last April 1 showed that they each sustained single fatal gunshot wound.
National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) Secretary General Atty. Edre Olalia said forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun conducted autopsy and external examination on the remains of Darwin Sulang, a 22-year-old farmer, and bystander Enrico Fabilgar, 30, last April 9.
Based on the autopsy, Sulang sustained a “single perforating gunshot wound almost in the middle of the forehead, which exited at the top back of the head.”
On the other hand, Fabilgar, sustained a “single penetrating gunshot wound of the trunk,” based on Fortun’s external examination of the body.
The two died during the dispersal of protesting farmers due to lack of government’s assistance after their crops were destroyed by drought.
The independent autopsy and external examination of the two victims debunked the earlier statement of Interior and Local Government Secretary Mel Sarmiento that the fatalities died of heat stroke and blunt trauma caused by hard objects “not bullets.”
READ: Cops, farmers clash in Kidapawan; 2 dead
Sulang’s death certificate also showed his cause of death was a puncture wound and not a gunshot wound.
Olalia said they opted for an independent autopsy and examination of the remains.
“We have an open mind. An independent autopsy and examination will either validate or debunk the findings of the government,” he said.
He added that the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) have refused to give them a copy of the autopsy reports on the two victims.
READ: Detained Kidapawan farmers released