Last week 15 NDFP consultants or Reds or NPA or whatever you wish to label them were acquitted over the Inopacan massacre of the 1980's. This has upset certain groups as well as government officials but the details of the case are straight out of the X-Files.
A Manila court has resolved the case of “ghosts” crying for justice and “traveling skeletons” as it dismisses the murder charges against the supposed members of the communist group responsible for their death.
In a 97-page decision, Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32 has granted the demurrers to evidence filed by former lawmaker Satur Ocampo, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant Rafael Baylosis and Adelberto Silva; farmers Norberto Murillo, Dario Tomada, and Oscar Belleza; Exuperio Lloren and another demurrer filed by Vicente Ladlad.
A demurrer to evidence is in effect a motion to dismiss anchored on the ground that the evidence presented is insufficient.
The court also dismissed the 15 counts of murder against the following couple Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, Lino Salazar, Presillano Beringel, Luzviminda Orillo, Muco Lubong, and Felix Dumali.
The dismissed the case becasue the evidence was insufficient. What exactly is the evidence proving that those people are guilty of murder let alone a massacre?
The case started in 2006 when a member of the 43rd Infantry Battalion heard “some noises, shouting and drumbeating” while resting in a hammock at the Tactical Command Post in Barangay Kaulisihan, Inopacan, Leyte.
The following day, while doing clearing operations, the Battalion member chanced upon farmer Floro Tanaid and asked him about the noise. Tanaid told him that the noise could have come from the souls of the people executed by members of the New Peoples’ Army in Sapang Dako.
Since the area is still within their jurisdiction, the soldier sought the help of Tanaid to check the place where the noise came from and did some digging. They eventually dug up a “long bone.” After getting the go signal from their commander, they had several diggings and discovered several skeletal remains believed to be of the 15 people executed by the NPA during the 80s.
During the trial, the court noted the inconsistencies in the testimonies of witnesses such as Tanaid, the guide who claimed that the military went to his house on Aug. 25, 2006, and sought his help in locating the mass grave while the military witness claimed he heard the noises only on Aug. 25, 2006. In meeting Tanaid, the witness said he “chanced upon him.”
On the other hand, the forensic pathologist from the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory Dr. Mamerto Bernabe admitted that upon examination of the skeletal remains, he did not conclusively identify any of the bones as belonging to a particular person.
Another witness from the PNP, PCI Jasper Magana said that while they were able to get buccal swabs from a list of persons provided by the military, by the time the PNP has the technology to generate DNA profiles from skeletal remains, “the prosecution did not bother to coordinate…to cause the DNA examination.”
This case started back in 2006 because a solider who was lounging in a hammock heard shouting and drumbeating. The next day he happened to meet a local farmer who told him the noises could be from the souls of the people executed by the NPA. Based on that information alone the two did some digging and found a "long bone." The commander was informed and he gave them the go ahead to continue digging. Remains believed to be of 15 people were exhumed. However a pathologist from the National Crime Laboratory said he could "not conclusively identify any of the bones as belonging to a particular person." The prosecution also failed to obtain any DNA samples form the remains.
But during trial the farmer and the solider gave different testimonies as to how they met and the circumstances in which they found the alleged mass grave.
Let's continue.
Lawyers of the accused said that the skeletal remains were the subject of a similar case which was previously dismissed by the Baybay, Leyte Regional Trial Court. The skeletons were discovered in June 2000, in Barangay Monterico, Baybay, Leyte. Supposedly, the skeletons were that of Concepcion Aragon, Juanita Aviola, and Gregorio Eras, the same victims whose skeletons were also dug up in Inopacan, Leyte six years after.
A relative of one of the victims admitted participating in the diggings in Baybay, Leyte. The same witness said, “he does not know how the then members of the 43rd Infantry Battalion were able to identify the skeletal remains of his father and brothers despite him not being able to identify them at that time.”
“Of course, logic dictates that these eventualities cannot or are impossible to happen unless these skeletal remains, as conjured by the defense, were exhumed in one place and thereafter, transferred and/or buried in another,” the court said.
“And despite the fact that this obvious inconceivability came up during the presentation of its evidence, the prosecution did not bother to clear this up by adducing evidence to elucidate these apparent improbable scenarios,” the court added.
Aside from the absence of forensic evidence, no other document was presented such as a death certificate or declaration of presumptive death. The court also noted that the testimonies of the witnesses are “palpably unreliable” due to “overwhelmingly numerous” contradictions.
The court said because the “prosecution miserably failed to establish the guilt of accused-movants beyond reasonable doubt for the 15 counts of murder filed against them and thus they deserve a verdict of acquittal.”
The skeletal remains were part of another case which was dismissed in 2000 according to the defense. These remains were allegedly the same remains found in 2006 which the court notes is totally impossible unless the defendants buried, exhumed, and reburied the remains. A relative of one of the dead says he did not understand how the military could identify the remains of his father and brother when he was not even able to recognize them.
The court concluded that there was no forensic evidence of any kind presented and that the testimonies of the witnesses are unreliable because of numbers contradictions. Therefore the prosecution "miserably failed to establish the guilt of" the accused.
The facts of the case and the lack of evidence has not stopped certain groups and officials from being disappointed in the lack of a conviction. Vice Chairman of the NTF-ELCAC Hermogenes Esperon's disappointment is quite notable for its lack of reference to the actual facts of the case and for his instance that being acquitted does not mean one is not guilty.
An official of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on Sunday said despite the acquittal of 15 of 40 communist leaders and members, the grim fate suffered by Inopacan massacre victims in the evil hands of Jose Maria Sison and his co-defendants remains.
Secretary Hermogenes Esperon, Jr., vice-chairperson of NTF-ELCAC, expressed disappointment to the decision of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) to acquit 15 Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army – National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) leaders for their role in the Inopacan massacre in Leyte in 1985.
"We are deeply saddened and dismayed with the news that the Manila RTC Branch 32, under Presiding Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina, has granted the demurrers to evidence resulting in the acquittal of known communists, namely: former Bayan Muna representative Satur Ocampo; National Democratic Front consultants Vicente Ladlad, Rafael Baylosis and Adelberto Silva, among others, two for the perpetration of at least 15 summary executions in the killing fields by the NPA in Sapang Dako, Inopacan, Leyte in the 1980s," said Esperon Jr., who is also National Security Adviser.
He said the murder cases were filed to give justice to the gruesome deaths of 67 persons, whose skeletal remains were unearthed in the said Leyte town on Aug. 28, 2006.
After the mass grave discovery, Esperon, who was then the Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff, filed 15 counts of murder before the Manila Regional Trial Court against CPP founding chair Jose Maria Sison and 37 others for their alleged involvement in the massacre.
"The clear intention behind the Inopacan massacre case is to stand, speak, and obtain justice for the dead -- the victims and their families. With the purest intentions, we fought for what is right and the truth. We hoped that light will shine and pass through even in the eye of the needle," Esperon said.
The acquittal, he said, does not mean that the crimes were not committed.
The Supreme Court (SC) held that once a demurrer to evidence has been granted in a criminal case, this amounts to an acquittal.
"With the quantum of evidence of proof beyond reasonable doubt required by our criminal judicial system, we still emphasize that a ruling in favor of the accused does not equate to innocence nor the finding that the crime did not happen. The philosophy is based on Blackstone's formulation that it is better to acquit ten guilty men, than to convict an innocent man. To reiterate, the decision is based on insufficiency of evidence and not that the crime did not happen at all," Esperon said.
He added that prevailing law and jurisprudence recognize two kinds of acquittal.
"First is an acquittal on the ground that the accused is not the author of the act or omission complained of. The second instance is an acquittal based on reasonable doubt on the guilt of the accused," he said, adding that acquittal on this case lies on the second kind, grounded on the alleged insufficiency of prosecution’s evidence.
"Again, it does not mean that the 15 murder cases were not committed and that the accused were not responsible for the gruesome crimes," he said. This simply means that the quantum of evidence of proof beyond reasonable doubt was not met in eyes of the presiding judge.”
"Still, the technical victory of the communists, in this case, does not obliterate in the eyes of history and of the people their brutal killing fields and summary executions without due process -- the emblem of their egregious and blatant disrespect of human rights and sanctity to life which they purport to protect," he added.
First of all it's interesting to learn that Esperon is the one who filed this case. That would mean the evidence he had was the same evidence presented in court. That is the same LACK OF EVIDENCE. Second of all while he does think these people are guilty he is more upset that communists got away. After all, as he lets us know, the CPP-NPA has waged a brutal war killing many. But that is confusing the issue. The issue is not their being communists but their culpability in this case. Did they in fact massacre so many people at Inopacan?
Third of all his is insistence that these people are guilty. It could be that they are guilty. But the evidence that Esperon gathered and which the prosecution presented was found to be inconsistent and unreliable. You can't base a trial on the fact that a solider did some digging because he heard some ghosts making noises and found bones which could not be properly identified. Why does Esperon have no harsh words for the prosecution who failed to present a coherent case against the accused? Why does he not lament that the testimony of the witnesses was unreliable and inconsistent? Why does he insist these men are guilty despite their being NO EVIDENCE to support that assertion? That the "prosecution miserably failed to establish the guilt of accused-movants beyond reasonable doubt" is not a "technical victory." Rather, it is another damning instance of the horribly broken Philippine justice system attempting to dole out injustice.
Hermogenes Esperon is a moron who, despite his reference to Blackstone's Ratio which has NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS CASE, does not give a single care about the rule of law. He wants every communist bagged and tagged BECAUSE they are communists and not because they are guilty of any real crime. For him being a communist is a crime.
Other groups, front groups for the NTF-ELCAC disguised as grassroots organizations, have also condemned this ruling.
Groups of parents and other anti-communist organizations condemned the acquittal of about 15 leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the National Democratic Front (NDF) from their alleged involvement in the "Inopacan Massacre" in Leyte 31 years ago.
Members of League of Parents of the Philippines (LPP) or the Liga ng mga Magulang Liga Independencia Pilipinas (LIPI), Sulong Maralita, Hands Off Our Children (HOOC), and Yakap ng Magulang, staged a marching rally along Morayta Street in Manila City on Wednesday to express their disappointment to Manila City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 32 Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina.
"We, as parents, strongly condemned the decision of Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina by dismissing it by mere technicality," LPP chair Remy Rosadio said during the protest rally. "With these, the people’s faith on the justice system has eroded and the only way for it to be restored is by giving full justice to the victims of the Inopacan Massacre."
Rosadio said the decision may increase the morale of the New People's Army (NPA), the CPP's armed wing, to continue their atrocities, such as extortion, recruiting more minors, and indigenous people.
She said the CPP-NPA-NDF and its allies might be manipulating the court system that resulted in the acquittal of the communist leaders.
Meanwhile, LIPI President Jose Antonio Goitia described the Manila RTC's decision as "regrettable" and a major setback to the country's fight against communist insurgency.
"The setback does not rule out the possibility that the CPP-NPA-NDF is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," Goitia said.
These people are just as moronic as Esperon. They are what is referred to in the business as useful idiots. See how they not only echo Esperon by saying this ruling does not mean they are not guilty but they go even further and allege that the CPP-NPA-NDF might be manipulating the court system which is why the accused were acquitted. Absolutely pathetic.
These kind of stooges are why the AFP and PNP feel emboldened to obtain dubious search warrants and slaughter suspects when they suddenly burst into their homes unannounced. They have no idea about the importance of the rule of law but that is nothing to be shocked at. This is not an Anglo-Saxon country where the rule of law was formulated and forms the backbone of society. This is the Philippines where natives pretend to be Europeans.
So the NTF-ELCAC is mad about this ruling and they are also upset about having their budget slashed. They say, "We shall make do."
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC) will make do with the PHP17.1 billion budget allocation it received for its Barangay Development Program (BDP) next year, an official said on Monday.
National Security Adviser and NTF ELCAC vice chair Hermogenes Esperon Jr. attributed the reduction to the opposition of some lawmakers regarding the BDP's 2022 budget which was projected to benefit 1,406 communist terrorists-cleared communities by next year.
The amount is much lower than the PHP28.1 billion budget earlier proposed by Malacañang to Congress for the task force.
"(What will happen now is that, we will be giving out PHP12 million instead of PHP20 million. We look at how much PHP12 million can do. Usually, when you are building a farm-to-market road, it is usually a kilometer long, and is paved with eight inches of concrete, and is usually five meters wide, it costs PHP12 million, it could cost higher in mountainous areas. We will look at whether we give this to barangays or just cut it in half)," he said during an ambush interview at the Quezon City Hall of Justice.
Since the people in the beneficiary communities already knew that they will be getting PHP20 million for BDP projects, Esperon said they have no choice but to explain why some lawmakers are not amenable to giving them the proposed budget.
"(Whatever their reasons, it is up to the lawmakers to explain to the affected communities, we don't know their explanation, they told us that they will be using the money for Covid-19 response but do know that in Bayanihan 1 and Bayanihan 2, the government has already spent PHP601 billion for Covid-19 response)," he added.
It is not a mystery why lawmakers decided to slash the NTF-ELCAC budget. It's not because they are communists or support the communist cause. It's because the NTF-ELCAC is without oversight and cannot account for much of their spending.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has found several “deficiencies” in the implementation of programs, projects and activities (PPAs) of the six member agencies of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) in 2020.
In its consolidated “Annual Financial Report” for national government-agencies, the COA said “incomplete documentation, low fund utilization and unutilized funds, unauthorized fund transfers and lack of guidelines on the use of funds” were observed in the implementation of various PPAs of the task force’s member-agencies.
It said the adverse findings “cast doubt” on the efficient use of public funds by NTF-ELCAC agencies – the Departments of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), Philippine National Police (PNP) and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
The audit body said the DILG, in particular, failed to utilize P8.735 million intended for activities under “strengthened communication strategies, capacity development and alliance-building with all sectors for local peace and development.”
The COA said the DSWD’s regional Field Office 13 (CARAGA) had disbursed P1.28 million under the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program and P4.04 million under the Livelihood Settlement Grants or a total of P5.32 million for assistance to former rebels who surrendered to the government.
The payments were made despite inappropriate or lack of supporting documents, “thereby casting doubt on the propriety and validity of the transactions,” the COA said.
Will Hermogenes Esperon also be explaining to LGUs why the NTF-ELCAC has all these financial anomalies? Will he be explaining to them why the DILG failed to utilized P8.37 million in funds allocated for local peace and development? Will he sit down and tell them why the NTF-ELCAC doled out millions in bribes to rebel surrenderees but did not properly document those transactions? Probably not because Hermogenes Esperon is a dishonest hack who does not care about the rule of law.
