THE Philippine National Police task force
investigating extrajudicial killings has filed 86 cases against 27
arrested suspects in 141 verified killing incidents since 2001; 46 of
the 86 cases are now being tried in court and four have already
resulted in convictions, a report to the Department of the Interior
and Local Government (DILG) said yesterday.
Interior assistant secretary Danilo Valero said the
report submitted by Task Force Usig showed that of the 86 cases filed,
63 involved the murder of political activists and 23 of journalists.
Of the 63, one case has been settled amicably,
seven dismissed and 29 still on trial as of April 25.
Of the 23, Valero said 22 are already in court and
one in the preliminary investigation stage. Seventeen cases are still
on trial, two have been resolved with the suspects’ conviction, and
three dismissed.
"This task force headed by Police Director
Jefferson Soriano, head of the Directorate for Investigation and
Detective Management, had listed a total of 257 suspects in these 141
verified incidents, where 27 have already been arrested, 13 more have
surrendered and another four convicted by the trial courts," Valero
said.
The TF Usig report also said that 12 cases are
pending before the prosecutor’s office for preliminary investigation
while 14 were provisionally dismissed.
Of the 141 cases verified by the task force, 113
involved the killing of political activists. The suspects in 28 of the
cases involve Communist Party/New People’s Army members; military and
paramilitary elements in 13 cases; five involving civilians with
alleged links to the Armed Forces; and one case still under
investigation.
Soriano said suspects in the 23 cases involving media-related
killings include the CPP/NPA, two military elements (one arrested and
one surrendered) and two civilians (one arrested and one surrendered).
Three of these incidents involved three policemen (all detained) with
one civilian who voluntarily surrendered; two cases involved two
government officials who voluntarily surrendered with one civilian
(one arrested); and 15 cases involved only civilians as suspects, of
whom 10 were arrested and six surrendered. – Raymond Africa
