Militants dismayed by result of probe into Capalla murder

ILOILO CITY, Philippines - — Militant groups, Bayan-Panay, Karapatan-Panay Alliance and Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto, in a press conference on Monday, conveyed their disappointment over the result of the police investigation on the killing of Romeo Capalla.

The Iloilo Provincial Police Office's investigation disclosed that a certain Junie Gabino of Leon town in Iloilo and allegedly a member of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade, was pointed out as the gunman that shot Capalla dead last March 15 at Oton, Iloilo.

Fords Pelaez of SELDA said his group did not believe that Gabino was the triggerman because witnesses said that the assailant was smaller than Gabino. He asked why the police should not focus on this matter.

Pelaez said SELDA already has the identity of the suspects, based on the accounts of witnesses, especially the mother-in-law of Capalla who happened to be at the crime scene at the time of the killing. SELDA will only reveal the identity of the suspects once it is ready to file the case against them, he said.

SELDA members, together with the National Union of People's Lawyers-Iloilo chapter, are now consolidating all the evidences, said Pelaez, adding that the victim's family will not join with the police in the filing of charges against Gabino who they believed was only a sacrificial lamb on the case.

Pelaez and his group alleged that the mastermind in the killing of Capalla was the Philippine government, using the members of the RPA-ABB.

Capalla, younger brother of Davao Archbishop Emeritus Francisco Capalla, was a former commander of the NPA. At the time of his death, he was a director of the Panay Fair Trade Center in Oton, Iloilo, which is composed of farmers and organizations selling organic products for local and international markets.  — text and photo by May Joven