CHR to bashers ‘Don’t condemn us’

ASG suspect Abu Saad is burried by authorities after he was killed who attempted to escape from custody.

“Prove your innocence, and we will stop.”

This was the message conveyed by Director Arvin Odron of the Commission on Human Rights in Central Visayas (CHR-7) to the Bohol policemen who were involved in the the death of Abu Sayyaf member Saad Samad Kiram, alias Abu Saad, last Friday.

Given the mandate to ensure that no abuses are done by government personnel, Odron said the CHR-7 must step in and inquire into what he considered a “suspicious” operation by the police.

“We are simply doing our mandate to monitor compliance of government standards. We just want to know if abuses were committed. Please do not misinterpret what we are doing,” he told Cebu Daily News.

The CHR has been the object of heavy and often harsh bashing on social media and adverse reaction from the police for ordering a probe into the circumstances surrounding the death of Abu Saad.

Abu Saad, who was captured last Thursday in Tubigon town, was one of three survivors of the team of about 11 Abu Sayyaf bandits who entered Bohol via the Inabanga River last April 10 on a kidnapping and terror mission.

Eight of his companions were killed by separate police-military joint operations on April 11 in Inabanga and on April 22 in Clarin, including their leader Maumar Askali alias Abu Rami.

Abu Saad, who was captured on Thursday after he went out of hiding and sought food from a resident of an interior village of Tubigon, was killed at dawn of Friday supposedly while attempting to escape and grappling for the gun of one of his police escorts.

Questions were, however, raised as to how he managed to escape when he was a high-value detainee. Moreover, one of his three gunshot wounds was right between his eyes.

Odron, who was in Baguio City yesterday after attending the 30th anniversary of CHR in Manila, appealed to the police and the public not to condemn or criticize the commission for conducting a probe on Kiram’s death.

“To the police, we just want them to know that the CHR is not biased against them. Just explain. If we will later find out that the shooting of Kiram was legitimate, then okay, they did it in the performance of their duty,” he added.

CHR-7 sent two of their investigators to Bohol last Friday to gather information regarding Kiram’s death and to secure a formal incident report from the Bohol police.

“What we are doing now is an inquiry. If we find sufficient basis, then we can conduct a formal investigation wherein concerned individuals will be given the chance to answer the accusations,” Odron explained.

“If the police will be able to justify what they did, then CHR will stop the probe, and we don’t have to proceed to conducting a formal investigation,” he added.

Contrary to earlier plans, Odron said he decided to forego the conduct of an autopsy on Kiram’s body for now, since the CHR has yet to determine if there is sufficient proof to conduct a formal probe on the bandit’s death.

Kiram’s dead body was buried by the police on a private lot in Tagbilaran City on Friday afternoon, about 10 hours after he was killed, in keeping with Islamic laws to bury a Muslim within 24 hours of his/her death.

Odron said if they later find out that an autopsy report is needed, their Manila-based forensic team will exhume Kiram’s remains and subject it to a post-mortem examination.

Surrender or be killed

Echoing the military’s appeal, Odron said it would be better for the two remaining bandits in Bohol to yield to the authorities.

“I suggest that they surrender peacefully. If they don’t trust the police, then go to other agencies like the National Bureau of Investigation or the governor of Bohol,” he said.

Senior Supt. Felipe Natividad, director of the Bohol Provincial Police Office (BPPO), welcomed the probe being conducted by the CHR.

“We are ready. We are not against that because our policemen were just doing their job,” he said.

Natividad said he will nonetheless conduct a separate investigation to have a better picture of what happened.

The Bohol police have maintained that Kiram was killed after he allegedly tried to escape and put the lives of his escorts in danger while he was being transported from Camp Dagohoy, the BPPO headquarters, to the Bohol District Jail before dawn on Friday

Capt. Jojo Mascariñas, spokesperson of the 302nd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army in Bohol, advised the two remaining bandits identified only by their aliases, Asis and Ubayda, to surrender to authorities.

The two bandits are believed to be crisscrossing the mountains in Bohol for close to a month now, without a source of food to avoid authorities.

Mascariñas said Asis and Ubayda have nowhere to go and are left with limited options.

“If they won’t surrender, its either they will be arrested or, worse, killed,” he told Cebu Daily News on Saturday.

“But definitely, we will get them. Dead or alive,” he added.

Mascariñas said intelligence reports show that the two bandits are roaming around the mountains of Inabanga and Clarin towns, which have been surrounded by soldiers and the police.

Authorities could not ascertain if Asis and Ubayda are armed, and they don’t want to take any chances.

“We could not be complacent. It’s difficult to put the lives of our men in danger,” Mascariñas said.
If the two bandits will surrender, he assured them that they will be safe.

“But just don’t try to escape or fight with the authorities, and you will be safe. Peacefully surrender yourselves,” Mascariñas said.

Safety assurance

Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said they are willing to take custody of Asis and Ubayda if they wish to surrender.

“We will follow the normal procedure if they will surrender. But as it is, the Abu Sayyaf don’t easily give up. Hindi sila nagpapahuli ng buhay. (They don’t allow themselves to be arrested alive),” he said.

Mascariñas urged the public to help them monitor the whereabouts of the two bandits in Bohol.

But with about a month now in hiding from authorities, Asis and Ubayda must no longer look like the pictures being disseminated by the military and police, Mascariñas said.

“Expect them to look thinner from how they appeared in their photographs,” he said.

Vigilance matters

Frank Baylosis, information officer of Inabanga, advised the people in Bohol to stay vigilant and alert especially now that they can hardly recognize the two remaining bandits from their pictures because they must have lost a lot of weight by now.

“If there are strangers who act in a suspicious manner, report it to the authorities. If we could not determine them through their faces, then perhaps their smell and manner of speaking will serve as signs,” he told CDN over the phone.

Baylosis expressed hope the two bandits will soon be arrested or neutralized.

“At least, one is gone. Nakuhaan ang among kabalaka (Our worries have lessened),” he said.