Before he was released, his jailguards told him that Lolo was, in fact, Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, then the commanding general of the 7th ID.
Two months later, on Nov. 16, Leuterio took the witness stand at the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) to serve as witness to the habeas corpus petition filed by the family of the two UP students against General Palparan.
Hindi kaya ng konsensya ko na hindi sabihin ang nakita ko (My conscience told me I have to tell what I saw), Leuterio said.
Good Samaritans turned victims
When they learned that their pastor Rev. Andy Pawecan was killed, Ruel Marcial and his neighbors volunteered to retrieve his body from the military. But Marcial could not believe he would also become a victim like his pastor. But unlike his pastor, he survived his ordeal albeit with scars.
Around noon of May 21, 2006, Pastor Pawecan was walking with his wife Dominga, Modesta Marcial, Ruels wife, Maria Binlengan, and other members of the United Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP) on an isolated stretch of road in Barangay Fatima, Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija. Soldiers from the 48th IB accosted them and took the pastor who was then carrying his eight-month old daughter in his arms.
Binlengan and the other women proceeded home in the neighboring village of Tayabo. At around 2:30 p.m., Binlengan said she heard gunshots near her house. Soldiers later claimed to have engaged New Peoples Army (NPA) guerillas in a firefight and, as a result, killed Pawecan who, the soldiers alleged, was a member of the NPA armed with a gun.
A few minutes later the soldiers returned and handed the baby to Dominga. The child had bruises on her cheeks and her dress was smeared with blood.
The residents, including Binlengan, went to claim the pastors body but the soldiers would not let them. It was only the following day that 13 male residents, including Marcial, were ordered by the soldiers to bring Pawecans body to a funeral parlor in San Jose City.
In a Bulatlat interview at a malls parking lot somewhere in Metro Manila on Dec. 6, Marcial said he was one of the 13 residents of Barangay Fatima in the town of Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija ordered by the military to bring the body of Pawecan to Barangay Tayabo in San Jose, the capital city of Nueva Ecija.
