August 31, 2006

Yesterday, the cartographic sketches of the two suspected gunmen in the Claver ambush were released by the Task Force Bulanao. The Cordillera Human Rights Alliance welcomes this development. We hope that this sketch and the investigation will lead to the arrest and presentation of the suspect in court especially with PRO-CAR Raul Gonzales’ validation of our position with his statement that the motive behind the ambush is political. We also look forward to the trial and prosecution of the gunmen and the mastermind/s of this dastard act.

There is strong reason to believe that Police Superintendent Pedro Ramos, the erstwhile Provincial Director of Kalinga Police Provincial Office has had prior knowledge of the ambush. At the least, he should be held culpable for gross negligence as the person-in-command in Kalinga when the ambush happened. Accounts have it that minutes after the ambush, no less than Police Supt. Ramos called off an ongoing hot pursuit against the vehicles carrying the suspected assailants. Police personnel manning the PNP Checkpoints located at the exit points from Tabuk municipality have not been alerted of the incident . This is amazing especially for the fact that Police Supt. Ramos was seen in the Kaling Provincial Hospital in full battle gear a few minutes after the wounded Alyce Claver and Dr. Chandu Claver were being attended to by doctors.

The outrage from the local up to the international level has mounted to a point that those tasked to investigate really have to deliver results. We at the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance would like to make it clear that the order of the President to get 10 cases of political killings solved in 10 weeks is not what propelled this development.

It is at this point that we call on the witnesses to be strong and participate in investigations being done by the government and other concerned groups.

We commend the Task Force Bulanao for being true to its mandate in pursuing the investigation of the case. We can only yearn that similar task forces should have been created to examine the other 744 killings of activists.

We likewise laud the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) for their own investigation of the Claver ambush in the form of public inquiries from Aug 28-31. We hope that they will conduct a similar investigation on the case of Rafael Markus Bangit who was politically assassinated last June 8 of this year in Echague, Isabela. We encourage the CHR to continue issuing statements and recommendations that help shed light on the incident and will hopefully lead to the appropriate punishment of the perpetrators. These acts lend support to the victims of human rights violations and their families.

During these times of ever-worsening human rights violations, we should draw strength from each other to assert and uphold our rights and see that genuine justice be delivered.

STOP THE KILLINGS!
JUSTICE FOR ALL VICTIMS OF STATE TERRORISM!
PROSECUTE P.D. RAMOS FOR HIS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS!

Reference:
Beverly L. Longid
Vice Chairperson, Cordillera Human Rights Alliance