Davao City Anakpawis is challenging here today Barangay Captain Colberto Tibay to demand for a speedy and genuine investigation on the killing of Alfonso Capiales and to order the immediate pull-out of military troop in Barangay Magsaysay.
72 year old Alfonso Capiales was the municipal coordinator of Anakpawis Nabunturan, Compostela Valley Province and the chairperson of Magsaysay Farmers Association (MAFA) when he died last July 7 (Saturday), at around 7:00 pm in his house at Prk. 12, Brgy. Magsaysay, Nabunturan, Comval after suffering from 4 gunshots of a .45 caliber pistol in his arm and face.
“We are reminding Kapitan Tibay of his obligation as the father of Barangay Magsaysay to work for the justice due to Alfonso Capiales, his family, and the rests of the people who were maliciously and wrongfully enlisted in the Order of Battle of the 60th IB,” Anakpawis southern Mindanao regional spokesperson said.
“The alleged participation of the 60th IB to the killing is a known possibility that can not be brushed aside. The military should be compelled to go under investigation as the crimes motive and circumstantial evidences logically point to the usual operations of the military against prominent members of legitimate progressive organizations in the hinterlands,” Duterte added.
Duterte noted that “it personally came from Kapitan Tibay the information about the Order of Battle which the military revealed to him indicating Alfonso Capiales as among the accused members of the New Peoples Army.”
Anakpawis noted an incident of harassment on Capiales prior to his death where he had specified in his sworn statement the order he got from the military last July 5, 2007 forcing him to surrender based on his alleged involvement to the communist movement.
“We have learned in our investigation that before Capiales was murdered, he denied the militarys allegation and asserted the legality of the MAFA where he serves as the chairperson,” Duterte noted.
“We fear for more crimes of this like to happen in the coming days as military operations in Compostela Valley are getting intensive in going after the members of legitimate peasants organizations who are accused of having links with the New Peoples Army,” Duterte warned.
Anakpawis also urged the Local Government Unit of Nabunturan to immediately intervene in the investigation of the Capiales killing and to initiate a peoples consultation regarding the deployment of the military troop in Barangay Magsaysay.
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Extrajudicial Killings
