The Philippine National Police is ready to face the charges to be filed by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) over the April 1 bloody dispersal of farmers in Kidapawan City.
PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Wilben Mayor said the police force will wait for the concerned government agencies to require the involved policemen to answer the cases against them.
“The PNP will provide legal service and assistance to the policemen who will be charged in this incident,” the police official said in a briefing at Camp Crame on Thursday.
In a 46-page report, the CHR said the PNP used excessive force and fired the first shot in the dispersal of 3,000 protesting farmers in Kidapawan City.
The rally left two protesters dead, two police officers seriously injured and scores wounded.
The CHR said the arrest and detention of the farmers were “attended by excessive and unjustified force, which must be investigated and responsible persons, prosecuted.”
It also cited the failure of the provincial government to address the root cause of the protest, which was insufficient food supply for farmers and indigenous peoples.
The report also found evidence that some protesters were induced to join the rally through deceit by some organizers and “unknown persons.”
The CHR report would be endorsed to the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the filing of criminal charges against the involved state agents, government officials and individuals.
Mayor said the PNP would let the policemen defend themselves against charges that the bloody dispersal was an overkill.
“Let us allow the policemen who will be made to answer the charges to answer these in the proper forum. If they will submit it to the Ombudsman or the DOJ, the particular agency will direct the concerned officers to answer the charges,” he said.