PNP chief on Kidapawan incident: No order to disperse

PNP chief Director General Ricardo Marquez. SCREENGRAB FROM PNP PIO VIDEO.

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna—There was no standing order to disperse the protesting farmers in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato last April 1, only an explicit instruction for policemen to clear the roads blocked by the protesters, said Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ricardo Marquez on Friday.

Marquez said he also did not know who gave the order to fire a warning shot that apparently led to the commotion and violence that resulted in the death of two farmers (other accounts said three farmers died) and the wounding of more than 100 others, including policemen.

READ: Cops, farmers clash in Kidapawan; 2 dead

The farmers, affected by drought, barricaded the national highway of Kidapawan City to demand for food aid and rice.

At the Senate inquiry into the incident held in Davao City on Thursday, the regional police director Chief Supt. Noel Armilla said Marquez had closely monitored the incident.

Asked how much he knew of the situation on the ground, Marquez, in an ambush interview here Friday, said he was receiving text messages from Armilla as early as March 30.

“When the mass of people assembled on the highway, I received text messages from the regional director. I think that was March 30. We were scheduled to have a command conference the following day (March 31) in Davao and I happened to be on a plane seated near (North Cotabato) Governor (Emmylou) Lala Mendoza,” Marquez said.

The messages, he said, referred to people starting to block the highway, forcing authorities to reroute traffic flow. He said there was an alternate route but only for light vehicles. He said trucks carrying goods could not pass through the highway because people had blocked the highway.

Marquez was in this police camp on Friday for the inauguration of a renovated multipurpose hall named after him and for the presentation of illegal firearms seized by the police in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon).

Whose orders?

Last April 1, the day of the dispersal, Marquez said he was informed that a crisis management committee had been formed.

“It was the decision of the crisis management committee not to disperse—there was no (order to disperse)… but to clear the highway so that, you know, it can be used by people, by commuters,” he said.

Marquez said there was no order to fire on the protesters.

READ: North Cotabato governor:  Police made call to disperse farmers in Kidapawan City

“I don’t think there was (an) instruction to fire except, probably, when the two police officers… were being clubbed,” he said.

Pressed on who specifically gave that order, he said, “I really did not know who gave the order (to fire) but indeed a firing shot was made,” he said.

At the inquiry, North Cotabato provincial police director Supt. Alexander Tagum denied giving the order.

Since the incident, Marquez said he had attended one meeting with President Benigno Aquino III in Malacanang.

The president, he said, wanted to see results of the ongoing fact-finding, among other things. RAM