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A
human rights group is anticipating that ongoing investigations
into the murder of a former New People's Army (NPA) leader
will be whitewashed.
Msgr.
Feliciano Nalzaro of the militant human rights advocate Karapatan,
said that public statements made by the military regarding
the death of suspected ex-rebel commander Ronald Sendrijas
"is not unlike those of previous cases of political killings
in the province."
According
to Nalzaro, barely a few hours after Sendrijas was gunned
down along Gallares Street, this city, the 302nd Infantry
Brigade through MSgt. Joel Tabañag, immediately issued
statements over Cebu radio stations, that "the ex-rebel
leader was killed by his own former comrades because he allegedly
decided to lay low from the movement.
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"Without
even giving himself a chance to look at the crime scene,
and without holding even an ounce of evidence, Tabañag
did not have a scrap of credibility and authority to
announce… his baseless allegations…"
Nalzaro said.
The
militant priest added that Tabañag's allegations
"harp on the same fantastic stories concocted by
the military to uniformly explain the over 800 cases
of political killings in the country."
Karapatan
criticized 302nd IB's sanction for Tabañag's
pronouncements saying that "they should have at
least waited for the results of the police investigation,
or if there is yet none, push for an investigation of
the killing without excluding their own ranks."
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The
killing of Sendrijas was similar to the deaths of activists
Nestor Arinque, Victor Olayvar and Mario Auxilio that "were
all quickly explained by the 302nd IB as 'purging' within
the ranks of the NPA."
Nalzaro
has called "an impartial and speedy investigation"
of the Sendrijas case.
He
said "the Commission on Human Rights and other concerned
government agencies should take part in the investigation
so that the real perpetrators would be identified and
prosecuted."
NO
SUSPECTS YET
The
City PNP has not identified the two motor-riding suspects
who shot Sendrijas along the busy Gallares Street.
The
two suspects, according to witnesses, "calmly fled"
the crime scene aboard their getaway motorcycle leaving the
lifeless body of Sendrijas sprawling on the highway gutter.
City
Police chief Insp. Jacinto Cesar said in an interview that
a cartographer of the PNP has already talked to the witness
to get a possible sketch of the suspects.
Sendrijas,
35, a native of San Jose, Inabanga town, was suspected to
be the former secretary of the Central Visayas Regional Party
Committee of the CPP-NPA.
He
was implicated in several violent incidents here in Bohol
and in Cebu when he was allegedly active in the communist
insurgency.
He
has a pending case for robbery with serious physical injuries
at the Regional Trial Court, Branch 25 in Danao City, Cebu.
Charges
of rebellion was also filed against him at the RTC, Branch
49 here but was provisionally dismissed on July 2007.
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