CHR starts autopsy on 5 killed in Mabinay shootout

 DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — The Commission on Human Rights started Wednesday morning its exhumation and autopsy of the five civilians who were killed in the November 18 shootout with policemen inside the DENR compound at Barangay Bulwang in Mabinay, Negros Oriental.

CHR-Negros Oriental chief, Jess Cañete, said the autopsy was part of the motu proprio initial investigation to determine possible human rights violations by government met at the time of the shootout.

Cañete, however, clarified the autopsy was merely “inquisitorial” to help the CHR determine if there was a need to go for a full blown investigation on the deaths of the five civilians.

The public should understand that the process of probing into the circumstances of the killing had just begun and that there was still no conclusive outcome until enough evidence will be gathered to warrant a full investigation, he said.

The six-member forensic team consisted of Cañete, and two medico-legal officers, Doctors Ludivino Lagat and Ravel Baloyot, a nurse and two other technicians, all from the CHR-central office.

Cañete further explained that, apart from the autopsy, other aspects of the entire process would include comparison of findings from the PNP Scene of the Crime Operatives—who were the first to respond to the crime scene—and the statements of witnesses to the shootout.

The witnesses, families and relatives of those killed had given statements different from the initial police reports in the news and aired over the radio stations, he said.

Cañete said the CHR will later visit the DENR compound in Bulwang for documentation purposes of the crime scene. He will also ask for statements from the DENR-Mabinay employees who may have been present at the time of the incident.

As soon as the autopsy results are out, Cañete said he would proceed to the next step, which is to take the affidavits of the witnesses, and then summon the personnel of the Regional Public Safety Battalion-7, who figured in the shootout.

The autopsy, which continued until yesterday, was done at the Bais City public cemetery, where four of the five slain civilians—Feliciano Candido, Angel Torres, Renato Torres, and Graciano Embalsado—were buried, and then at Barangay Sab-ahan, also in Bais, where the fifth fatality, Cedric Regino, was interred.

The incident leading to the shootout started when Candido and nine other civilians went to the DENR office to negotiate for the release of a chainsaw, belonging to one of their companions, which was confiscated November 5 due to an alleged illegal tree cutting activity at the forest reserve in Mabinay.

The RPSB-7 personnel responded to a call for assistance from Dionisia Trongcoso, DENR-Mabinay station chief, for an “armed persons alarm.” But when the police accosted one of the companions of Candido for something that bulged on his waist, the shootout ensued between the police and Candido’s group, which allegedly fired first.

After the shootout, Candido and four of his companions died, one of his men was wounded, three others were arrested, but one managed to escape, while three of the policemen were slightly wounded. Police investigators recovered from the scene firearms and ammunition, which allegedly belonged to the civilians.

Of the five killed, Candido was a security agent, and the two Torreses and Regino were job order workers assigned to the Civil Security Office of the Bais City government. Embalsado was not part of the LGU.

The Bais City LGU clarified later that Candido and the others went to Mabinay on their own and it was not an official or authorized trip, because the town was no longer part of the city’s jurisdiction.  (FREEMAN)