AFP to PNP: Show us you had a case

Army chief Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana maintained on Thursday that none of the four military intelligence men, gunned down by policemen in Jolo nearly two months ago, were linked to the narcotics trade and challenged the police to prove the claims they made before senators on Wednesday.

The Army chief pointed out that one of the four slain soldiers, Cpl. Abdal Asula, was linked to the drug trade but Sobejana himself, as chief of the Western Mindanao command at that time, ordered an investigation of the accusation.

Prove accusations

“There was a rumor that he was involved so I had that investigated when I was Wesmincom commander through the 11th Infantry Division,” Sobejana told reporters on Thursday. “Nothing came out that Cpl. Asula had involvement with any illegal drug syndicate, if there was one existing in Jolo.”

Sobejana challenged Police Brig. Gen. Manuel Abu, chief of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police, to prove his accusations instead of defaming a dead man.

“The burden of proof is with them, to prove that Cpl. Asula was involved in illegal drugs. The Army has its internal cleansing and we saw that [Asula] had no involvement. Now with this allegation, Brig. Gen. Abu has the burden of proof that there was involvement.”

‘Notable statement’

During the Senate hearing on Wednesday, Abu quoted a “notable statement” from Police Col. Michael C. Bawayan Jr., police director of the Sulu Provincial Police Office, who presented a “drug matrix” linking Asula to a drug syndicate.

Bawayan, who is himself charged with neglect of duty, said they came to the conclusion that Asula was linked to a drug syndicate because Asula’s brother was killed in a police anti-drug operation in March and some other relatives were arrested on drug charges.

But under grilling by several senators, the policemen failed to prove their charges against Asula or any of his relatives and also failed to show any connection between their suspicions and the killing of four soldiers on an anti-terror mission on June 29.

Abu’s claim is “obviously a desperate attempt by the assailants to besmirch the reputation of Cpl. Asula to justify or to divert the attention away from the senseless killing of the soldiers,” AFP spokesperson Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said in a statement on Thursday.

Arevalo noted that the nine policemen involved in the killing have been invoking self-defense even if the National Bureau of Investigation found that the claim of a gunfight was unlikely because witnesses saw the four soldiers were unarmed and they all had gunshot entry wounds in their backs.

‘All sorts of falsities’

He accused the local police of “coming up with all sorts of falsities to attempt to shirk [away from] criminal, civil and administrative responsibilities for the murder” of Asula, Maj. Marvin Indammog, Capt. Irwin Managuelod and Sgt. Jaime Velasco, all members of the 11th Infantry Division’s 9th intelligence service unit.

On July 21, the NBI filed a murder complaint against six Jolo policemen and three members of the Sulu Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit for the killings, who all declined to cooperate with the NBI investigation.