By VICENTE ALEJANDRO
TACLOBAN CITY—A call of the National Democratic Front to disband the Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion for their alleged hand in extrajudicial killings in this province “has no basis” and the battalion’s supposed involvement in the shooting incident in Palo, Leyte in 2005 “was never proven.”
Lt. Col. Federico Tutaan, commander of the battalion based in Barangay Aguiting, Kananga, Leyte, instead accused rebel priest Santiago Salas, NDF-Eastern Visayas spokesperson, for spreading “lies” to discredit his unit.
“There has been no sporadic killings committed (by my men),” he said. “In case we do have killings in encounters, we declare it.”
Tutaan also said Salas was lying when he reported that 10 soldiers of the 19th IB were killed by the New People’s Army in October and another 10 were killed in December.
“If I lost 10 men in October and 10 men in December, couldn’t that be national news? Second, if I lost 10 men in October and 10 men in December, wouldn’t I be relieved by now?” he said in an interview with reporters in May during the seminar on crisis management of the Regional Peace and Order Council held at the Governor’s Hall, Leyte Provincial Capitol.
“This Salas is a very coward person who keeps on talking. He doesn’t even come out. He only tells his media conduits and media friends and other friends to issue a statement with these lies without him coming out,” he said.
Tutaan attributed to Salas the move to resurrect the Palo incident in 2005 when seven farmers were killed, allegedly by soldiers belonging to the 19th IB, and the call to disband the battalion.
“They want to resurrect that incident (in Palo) in 2005…They do not resurrect it with me. If you want to resurrect it, there’s a proper forum for that. There’s the justice (system), there’s the criminal system, there’s the police,” he said.
The colonel added, “Who is he (Salas) now to say that the 19th IB or whatever other forces be disbanded, for a supposed incident in 2005 which was never proven?”
He admitted, however, that the Department of Justice is still investigating the killing in November 2010 of noted botanist Leonardo Co and his two companions, which involved soldiers belonging to the 19th IB.
“And every now and then, they call for my troops and I do send my troops there (at DOJ-Manila) when there is need for them to appear, to make statements or to sign something,” he said.
Tutaan said the involved soldiers have been disarmed, and their firearms sent to Camp Crame for examination. “They are still performing as soldiers, but of course they cannot go into actual combat operations,” he said.
Tutaan, who assumed as 19th IB commander only last Sept. 10, said his men are engaged in community development. “We are now into development. We are into bayanihan,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a statement dated June 1, the NDF-Eastern Visayas said the NPA in Leyte is “making the 19th IB pay for its crimes, and that battalion commander Lt. Col. Federico Tutaan is doggedly covering up his unit’s losses as well as its various atrocities.”
Salas slammed the AFP’s Oplan Bayanihan as a “bayanihan of butchers” because, he said, it is the same old “counterinsurgency” scheme with a different signboard.
He said the NPA is stepping up offensives to defend the people and punish human rights violators and other enemies of the people.
“Without the armed struggle, the people have nothing against the human rights violators and other oppressors and exploiters. The cries of the victims of social injustices are ignored or stifled by the reactionary ruling system,” the statement said. “It is the responsibility of the NPA to punish notorious fascist units such as the 19th IB.”
(This story is part of the VERA Files project “Human Rights Case Watch” supported by The Asia Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development. )