Vice Presidential candidate Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
The bullets from an M-16 rifle that killed the two victims in the violent dispersal of farmers in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato last April 1 did not come from the police, an official told a Senate hearing on Wednesday.
The two men killed in the incident were identified as Darwin Sulang, a 22-year-old farmer, and bystander Enrico Fabilgar, 30.
Police Senior Superintendent Alejandro Gunao, chief of Crime Laboratory Office in Region XII, told the Senate committee on justice that the results of their ballistic examination showed that the empty shells recovered from the scene came from an M-16 rifle.
“Anong findings? Saan galing yung bala (What are the findings? Where did the bullet come from)?” Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano asked Gunao during the ongoing investigation of the Senate committee on justice.
“Negative po, Sir,” Gunao said.
“Negative? Hindi galing sa baril ng (It did not come from the gun of) PNP (Philippine National Police)?” Cayetano asked again to which Gunao answered yes.
“Bakit? Anong bala (Why? What is the bullet)?” Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III asked.
“M-16, Sir,” Gunao said.
“M-16? “Paano ninyong nasabing hindi galing sa PNP ito (How could you say it didn’t come from PNP)?” asked Sotto.
“Yun po yung resulta ng ballistic examination, Sir, ng mga firearm examiner, Sir (That was the result of ballistic examination of firearm examiners, Sir),” said the police official.
However, Cayetano noted that a video footage by a TV network showed that there was a policeman holding a shield and a long arm that he said looked like an M-16.
“So paanong naging negative..? Tiningan nyo lahat ng M-16 ng security team (How did it become negative? Did you look into all of the M-16s of the security team)?” Cayetano asked Gunao, who answered yes again.
Sotto later asked Police Senior Supt. Alexander Tagum, who has been relieved from his post as North Cotabato provincial police director, if any of his men saw anyone from the protesters brandishing an Armalite before or during the rally.
READ: Militants could have killed Kidapawan victims—relieved police chief
“Sir, meron pong witness kaming nakakita na may mga nasa linya ng raliyitsa na may mga hawak ng baril at pumuputok sa linya po ng mga kapulisan (Sir, we have a witness who saw some protesters carrying guns and they were crossing the police line),” Tagum said.
He said he was ready to present the witness, whom he did not identify, except saying that this testfier was not a member of the police organization.
“If your witness saw that and it was during or before the dispersal, why did you not arrest them? Why did you not arrest them when they were brandishing firearms? There’s a Comelec (Commision on Elections) ban,” Sotto said.
READ: Gunshots killed Kidapawan victims, says forensics expert
However, lawyer Ephraim Cortez of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, was not convinced that the bullets came from the protesters.
“First, pinakalumang storya na po yan na sinasabi lagi na merong baril sa mga raliyista, panahon pa ni (Ferdinand) Marcos yan (First, saying that protesters have guns is an old story, it was way back Marcos’ time),” Cortez said, referring to the late dictator and noting how the police immediately cleared and destroyed the crime scene after the incident. RAM