Slain farmers’ family seeks CHR help in probe of case

BAGUIO CITY—Relatives of three slain farmers in Abra province on Wednesday  asked the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to investigate government soldiers for their alleged role in the killing of their kin.

Accompanied by representatives of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance, Edna Ligiw, a resident of Licuan-Baay town, asked the CHR Cordillera office to conduct an independent investigation on the Army’s 41st Infantry Battalion (IB), which she blames for the murder of her brothers, Fermin, 30, and Eddie, 42, and their father, Licuben, 70.

A search team composed of their neighbors and residents of Barangay Dominglay in Licuan-Baay  found their bodies buried near their farms on March 7.

The farmers were reported missing in the first week of March.

Fermin was a former communist rebel who belonged to Sikadan, an affiliate of the party-list Anakbayan.

Lyman Salvador, CHR Cordillera investigator, had received the complaints and said the agency would organize a fact-finding mission in Licuan-Baay.

Members of the Ligiw family had left their village after the three men were killed, said Edna. “We fear for our lives, so we decided to leave our village,” she said.

A fact sheet submitted to the CHR showed that Fermin Ligiw was  to meet with human rights groups to complain that he was harassed on Feb. 22 by soldiers.

The 41st IB had been conducting combat operations in Licuan-Baay on the week the Ligiws were reported missing.

Reached by the Inquirer, 41st IB spokesperson Capt. Erwin Libnao declined to issue a statement.

The 41st IB announced the discovery of the graves on March 8. A report was also posted on a Facebook account attributed to the 41st IB, accompanied by photographs of the crime scene, which showed that the farmers’ hands were tied.

The military had theorized that the three men were killed by rebels. But the New People’s Army (NPA) denied this in a statement issued by the NPA’s Agustin Begnalen Command. Kimberlie Quitasol, Vincent Cabreza and Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon