September 7, 2015, Lianga, Surigao del Sur – Witnesses to the September 1, 2015 killing of MAPASU Chairman Dionel Campos, ALCADEV Executive Director Emerito Samarca and Manobo Datu Juvello Sinzo and other complainants formally filed criminal charges against known perpetrators and other John Does at the Surigao del Sur Prosecutor’s Office in Lianga late this morning.
September 7, 2015, Lianga, Surigao del Sur – Witnesses to the September 1, 2015 killing of MAPASU Chairman Dionel Campos, ALCADEV Executive Director Emerito Samarca and Manobo Datu Juvello Sinzo and other complainants formally filed criminal charges against known perpetrators and other John Does at the Surigao del Sur Prosecutor’s Office in Lianga late this morning.
Cases of multiple murder, robbery, grave threat and coercion were filed against named members of the armed paramilitary group led by Marcos Bocales, Marcial Belandrez and Kalpet Egua. 20 other John Does were included in the complaint.
The complainants from the communities that are among the evacuees in sanctuary at the Surigao del Sur Sports Complex in Tandag City, felt the urgent need to file these cases and despite misgivings, voluntarily talked with local authorities, including investigators from the Provincial PNP, to provide information and assist in the immediate arrest of the perpetrators.
Assisted by volunteer lawyers of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) headed by its Surigao del Sur Chapter President, Atty. Kutz Melvin Montenegro and the Union of Peoople’s Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM) members Atty. Antonio Azarcon and Atty. Gerardo Maglinte, these cases were immediately filed one week after the incident.
“The communities, human rights organizations and advocates are doing our part so that the criminals can be arrested immediately and the evacuees can return safely to their communities.”, said Karapatan Caraga Secretary General Eliza Pangilinan.
“The ball is now in their hands. We urge law-enforcement authorities to do their part so that the killing rampage of these armed paramilitary groups can be immediately stopped.”, she said.
The killing of Campos, Samarca and Sinzo bring the number of paramilitary and military killings from 2014 to the present to 21 victims, 9 of whom are lumad.
“This is the most number of killings in Caraga that Karapatan has documented within an 18-month period since the time of Gloria Arroyo. This is the uncontrollable monster that the AFP’s Oplan Bayanihan spawned into the mountain communities in Surigao del Sur.”, Pangilinan concludes.#