By CONG B. CORRALES
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY– The killing of five people, including two minors, in Pangantucan town in Bukidnon nearly three weeks ago remains a subject of disagreement between government forces and relatives and supporters of the victims.
Shortly after the incident last August 18, the police and military labelled the five fatalities as guerrillas who were killed in a “legitimate encounter” between the government and the New People’s Army (NPA).
But yesterday, a 15-year-old survivor of the attack, told media that his family was gunned down by soldiers.
Speaking through an interpreter, the witness could hardly complete his sentences as he struggled to narrate the events of that fateful day when he saw soldiers kill his father, two siblings and two other relatives one by one outside their home in Barangay Mendis in Pangantucan.
The dead have been identified as 73-year-old Herminio Samia, brothers Joebert (20), and Emir Samia (19), and Norman and Elmer Somina, 13 and 17 years old, respectively. They have been known as the ‘Pangantucan 5’ since the incident was reported last month.
Flanked by relatives and Fr. Christopher Ablon, of the Alliance for Advancement of People’s Rights in Northern Mindanao Region (Karapatan–NMR), the survivor, a member of the Manobo tribe, said his family had begged the soldiers to take them as prisoners instead of killing them.
The human rights group Karapatan has said residents around the area were told about the incident by the 15-year-old witness/survivor who managed to escape.
“The residents wanted to go to the site immediately hoping they could still save him (Herminio) and the others, but (the witness) stopped them, saying that the military men no longer differentiated civilians and would shoot anyone,” Karapatan-NMR’s Fact Finding Mission Report reads in part.
According to Karapatan, Herminio Samia, father of the witness, was also known in their community as Datu Intabol, the second highest-ranking datu in their tribal community. He was a member of the council of tribal elders who are consulted on major decisions in the community.
The Army insists the five were NPA combatants and their deaths a result of an encounter with government troops, citing the positive results of paraffin tests done on each of the Pangantucan 5 by Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO).
SOCO regional assistant director Supt. April Madrozo told reporters in a news conference on Wednesday that the dead men and teenagers tested positive for nitrate, which could mean they fired guns prior to their deaths.
Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound that is widely used as gunpowder and artillery primer and in fireworks and hand-grenade fuses. Also known as saltpeter or niter, this chemical compound is also used in fertilizers.
To this, Karapatan spokesman Fr. Ablon posited that the positive presence of nitrate in the arms and hands of the fatalities is always possible since the dead indigenes were active farmers.
In his book titled “Gunshot Wounds: Practical Aspects of Firearms, Ballistics, and Forensic Techniques, Dr. Vincent JM Di Maio of the Texas Forensic Science Commission said that although the paraffin test often yield positive results on the hands of persons who fired weapons, it also could give positive results to persons who have not actually fired a gun.
“(This is) because of the widespread distribution of nitrates and nitrites in our environment. The paraffin test is in fact non-specific and is of no use scientifically,” Di Maio wrote.
Fr. Ablon asked why an autopsy was conducted without the presence of the victims’ kin or friends. He also challenged the military’s version of the incident, asking why they managed to recover only one AK-47 rifle in the area where the five indigenes were killed.
Had it been an encounter, as the military had claimed, each of the five would have been clutching a rifle when they died, he said.
Commander of the 1st Special Battalion Lt. Col. Nasser Lidasan explained to the media during the press conference that other rebels took the firearms of their fallen comrades when they fled the area.
In an emailed statement, NPA-North Central Regional Command spokesman Allan Juanito confirmed that they left one AK-47 rifle after their encounter with government forces that day.
Juanito, however, pointed out that the encounter happened some four kilometers away from Samia’s community in Sitio Mando, Barangay Mendis in Pangantucan, Bukidnon.
Meanwhile, Wildon Barros, secretary-general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Northern Mindanao region, cast doubts on the military report calling the victims NPA combatants. “Has there been an active combatant at age 73 and virtually blind?” he asked, referring to Herminio Samia.