From The Manila Times -- Editorial Opinion
"The horrible truth, according to the CHR"
AS many had feared, the death of the three men suspected of being carjackers at the Ortigas Center, Pasig City, in the hands of Traffic Management Group agents on November 7, 2005, was not legitimate but an act of murder.
In a disturbing but courageous report released Monday, the Commission on Human Rights said the 10 TMG officers summarily executed the victims inside a rented car near Garner Street and the AIC Gold Tower Bldg.
The CHR investigated the shooting immediately after the story broke in the papers. In a 35-page report, the commission said it found probable cause to charge the officers with multiple murder since the police operation was “feigned, premeditated and treacherous.”
The TMG said its men—members of Task Force Limbas—were waiting at the site, acting on a tip that a group of carjackers was going to pass through. The victims’ car matched that of the suspect vehicle. When the car appeared on the scene, it allegedly refused to stop on signal. A gunbattle followed.
It did not happen that way, according to the CHR.
“It is evident that when the victims were flagged down…the victims merely stopped the car, but were suddenly met with gunfire from the state agents herein who acted with criminal intent,” the report said.
A government forensic expert advising the commission said her findings showed that the victims did not fire at the officers. Hence, there could not have been any shootout. “There is no evidence to show that any of the three occupants had fired his gun,” the forensic expert Raquel Fortun said.
TV footage taken at the scene by an independent cameraman showed the officers approaching the car and firing at the victims simultaneously. There appeared to be no aggressive action or motion on the part of the occupants.
After the shooting, the officers made no attempt to take the mortally wounded suspects to the nearest hospital, the report noted.
Commission Chairman Purificacion Quisumbing, apparently reminded by the involvement of the police in inexcusable killings, said that they should not use excessive force in carrying out their duties. In its annual reports, the CHR has consistently cited the police as the leading violator of human rights.
The media reported the Ortigas killing as another “botched” police operation, the tendency of the law to commit mistakes, to ignore operational procedures or abbreviate the rules of engagement. The case further blackens the image of the Philippine National Police and the standards of our law enforcement here and abroad. It certainly stains the national image.
The TMG officers will have a chance to defend themselves before the Office of the Ombudsman, the National Police Commission or a court of law. At the CHR hearings, they were given all the opportunity to explain their side. But they refused to appear before the commission and relied on their lawyer to attend in their behalf. That kind of defense does not bring out the truth.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Monday, May 29, 2006
AMEN!!!!!
From ABS-CBN News Desk:
CHR RECOMMENDS MURDER RAPS VS 10 TMG MEN"
The Commission on Human (CHR) rights Monday recommended the filing of murder charges against 10 members of the Traffic Management Group who were involved in the alleged "overkill" of three carjacking suspects on Nov. 7, 2005 in Ortigas Center, Pasig.
CHR said its findings against Senior Inspectors Henry Cerdon, Hansel Marantan, Samson Belmonte; Police Officers 3 Lloyd Soria and Rizalito Ramos; Police Officers 2 Jesus Fermin, Sonny Robrigado and Dexter Bernadas; and Police Officers 1 Fernando Gapuz and Josel Rey Lucena will be submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman this week.
The 10 officers, who are members of Task Force Limbas, have been placed under administrative relief since last year owing to a video footage showing a member of the team firing a gun at the bodies of the slain suspects.
From Philstar:
Murder raps recommended vs cops in Ortigas ‘overkill’
By Katherine Adraneda
The Philippine Star 05/30/2006
Six months after the Ortigas Center shooting incident that left three people dead, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) recommended yesterday the filing of multiple murder charges against 10 members of task force under the Traffic Management Group (TMG).
In a 36-page en banc resolution, the CHR said it found probable cause that there was "arbitrary deprivation of life" committed against suspected carjackers Anton Cu-Unjieng, Francis Xavier Manzano, and Bryan Anthony Dulay by the 10 TMG officers.
Named in the resolution as respondents were Senior Inspectors Hansel Marantan, Henry Cerdon, and Samson Belmonte; Police Officers 3 Lloyd Soria, and Rizalito Ramos Jr., POs2 Dexter Pascua, Jesus Fermin, Sonny Robrigado; and POs1 Fernando Rey Gapuz, and Josil Rey Lucena.
The CHR will submit its resolution and other pertinent documents related to the case to the Office of the Ombudsman for the filing of criminal and administrative cases, in accordance with Republic Act 6770.
The CHR resolution and documents will likewise be endorsed to the National Police Commission (Napolcom), Philippine National Police (PNP) and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
According to the CHR, forensic analysis and findings revealed that when the three men were flagged down by the Task Force Limbas operatives, they stopped the car, but were met with gunfire from the state agents, "who acted with criminal intent."
"Hence, the anti-carnapping operations implemented by the police operatives on the evening of Nov. 7, 2005 was feigned, premeditated, and treacherous, thus the killing of the victims by the said state agents qualifies the criminal act as a case of multiple murder," the CHR resolution stated.
The CHR said that actions of the TMG operatives contravened the very rules of engagement of the PNP, noting that the policemen "deliberately did not make any attempt to bring the mortally wounded victims to the nearest hospital."
"Instead, they wilfully and feloniously ensured the death of the victims with the use of excessive and/or lethal force as borne by the second round of gunfire even when the victims were already at the point of death," the CHR resolution stated.
On the gunshot wound sustained by Inspector Belmonte that was supposedly a result of the shooting incident, the CHR deemed it as "self-inflicted and probably accidental."
At around 10 p.m. of Nov. 7, 2005, three alleged members of the Valle Verde Gang were killed during an anti-carjacking operation at the Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
Police intercepted Cu-Unjieng, Manzano, and Dulay, who were on board a Nissan Exalta sedan at the corner of Garnet and Ortigas, following a tip from an informant.
The victims, however, allegedly refused to yield and fired at the pursuing lawmen, who retaliated in "self defense."
However, relatives and human rights group decried the "overkill" based on video footage taken by a television news crew, prompting the CHR investigation.
Meanwhile, TMG director Chief Superintendent Errol Pan insisted that the incident was a result of a legitimate operation despite the findings of the CHR that no shootout took place between officers and the three suspected car thieves.
"We believe that TMG operation was legitimate. They (TMG operatives) are ready to prove that," Pan said in reaction to the CHR findings.
He said that what CHR found was merely probable cause and that TMG personnel can still defend themselves in court when the charges of murder are filed against them.
Pan was not yet chief of the TMG at the time of the shootout. He was appointed months later after another group of TMG operatives nearly killed a businessman whom they mistook for a car thief. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe
From The Manila Times:
Six months after the Ortigas affair, the Commission on Human Rights has at last recommended the filing of multiple-murder charges against the 10 members of Task Force Limbas who allegedly gunned down three men they suspected of being carjackers.
The commission urged the Ombudsman and the National Police Commission to initiate the filing of charges against Police Senior Insp. Hansel Marantan, Senior Insp. Samson Belmonte, Police Officer 3 Lloyd Soria, PO3 Rizalito Ramos Jr., PO2 Dexter Pascua, Senior Insp. Henry Cerdon, PO2 Jesus Fermin, PO2 Sonny Robrigado, PO1 Fernando Rey Gapuz and PO1 Josel Rey Lucena.
The 10 police agents, the commission found, summarily executed inside a rented Nissan Exalta Anton Cu-Unjieng, Francis Xavier Manzano and Bryan Anthony Dulay, reportedly members of the Valle Verde Carnap Gang, on November 7, 2005, at the premises of Garner Street and AIC Gold Tower Building.
‘Feigned, premeditated and treacherous’
In a 35-page decision the commission said it found probable cause to charge the 10 policemen with multiple murder as the police operation was “feigned, premeditated and treacherous.”
“It is evident that when the victims were flagged down by the Task Force Limbas operatives, the victims merely stopped the car, but were suddenly met with gunfire from the state agents herein who acted with criminal intent,” the decision read.
Commission chairman Purificacion Quisumbing said government and state agents should not use excessive force in performing their duties.
“Any excessive and/or arbitrary exercise of authority, as in this case, violates the basic guarantee of a person’s right to life and to due process,” she said.
No shootout
Quisumbing said the forensic expert Raquel Fortun showed that the victims did not fire at the policemen. Therefore, there was no shootout.
“There is no evidence to show that any of the three occupants had fired his gun,” she said.
Quisumbing stressed that the commission did not in any way fail to provide due process to the policemen, who were given opportune time to rebut the charges against them.
She said the 10 policemen refused to appear at the entire proceedings and instead commissioned their lawyer, Jose Tomas Syquia, to attend in their behalf.
“Respondents herein were afforded the opportunity to air their side, but they chose to invoke their constitutional right to remain silent, albeit prematurely,” she said.
From The Daily Tribune
CHR files murder raps vs TMG men on 3 slain carjack ‘suspects’
The Commission on Human Rights appears determined to bring to genuine justice the violators of human rights in the Philippine National Police, specifically those involved in the alleged shootout between the PNP Traffic Management Group (TMG) members and the alleged members of a carjack gang who were slain by the TMG in what it called a shootout last Nov. 7, 2005 in Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
The CHR yesterday, submitting its full report on the shootout, recom-mended the filing of multiple murder charges before the Ombudsman against 10 TMG members, namely Senior Inspectors Henry Cerdon, Hansel Marantan, Samson Belmonte; Police Officers 3 Lloyd Soria and Rizalito Ramos; Police Officers 2 Jesus Fermin, Sonny Robrigado and Dexter Bernadas; and Police Officers 1 Fernando Gapuz and Josel Rey Lucena.
The CHR said the charges against the 10 policemen accused of an “overkill” are slated
to be submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman this week. The Ombudsman is, however, expected to drag its feet in filing charges against the police.
The 10 police officers, members of Task Force Limbas, were supposed to have been placed under administrative relief since last year, following a video footage showing a member of the team firing a gun at the bodies of the slain suspect, Anton Cu-Unjing, Francis Xavier Manzano and Anthony Brian Dulay, whom the TMG claimed were members of the Valle Verde gang.
Even paid witnesses were said to be brought in by the PNP, to back up the TMG’s version of the three being known carjackers.
The CHR, briefing the media, found that the three suspects were defenseless and could not have engaged in a shoot-out with the police traffic team.
The agency also intimated that the police team members charged with multiple murder, also planted evidence, and made it appear that the “suspects” were armed, with even a gun placed in the right hand of one slain suspect, after the murder. The slain “suspect” was later discovered to be left-handed and couldn’t have held the gun with his right hand.
It was also found, from ballistics tests, that all the shots came from the police, with one definitely coming from the TMG police.
From the 16 spent bullets taken from the vehicle, a Nissan Sentra of the three suspects, only three bullets came from the car.
It will be recalled that the TMG members and their police superiors immediately claimed a shootout with suspected carjackers, unaware that a cameraman took a video footage of the incident.
Still, the police maintained that the video could not be deemed reliable, as the angle of the shots came from a poor vantage point and that the cameraman failed to shoot the entire episode, which the police claimed told a different story.
But even other TV stations had footage after the alleged shootout, showing certain positions of the victims, which cast doubt on the version of the police.
Shortly after a public outcry, the police chiefs said they had placed the TMG members under suspension, following an internal investigation, but less than a week later, the same policemen said to have been under investigation, were back at their posts, with the superiors claiming that theirs was a legitimate operation and that their men should not be punished for doing their duty.
But the CHR also noted that the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials (adopted by the Eight UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders, Sept. 7, 1990) provides under the General Provisions, Principles 5 and 7 that: “Whenever the lawful use of force and firearms is unavoidable, law enforcement officials shall:
(a) Exercise restraint in such use and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offense and the legitimate objective to be achieved;
(b) Minimize damage and injury, and respect and preserve human life;
(c) Ensure that assistance and medical aid are rendered to any injured or affected person at the earliest possible moment;
(d) Ensure that relatives or close friends of the injured or affected person are notified at the earliest possible moment. And that governments shall ensure that arbitrary and abusive use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials is punished as a criminal offense under law.”
The CHR report said that these provisions emphasize that the use of force by law enforcement officials should be an exception. While it implies that law enforcement officials may be authorized to use force as reasonably necessary under the circumstances for the prevention of crime or in effecting or assisting in the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders, no force going beyond that may be used. The use of firearms is considered an extreme measure, hence, the principle of proportionality is to be respected.
“With the foregoing findings, the Commission is strongly convinced that the TMG Task Force Limbas operatives committed human rights violations in breach of Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which the Philippines is a State party, which guarantees that: “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.”
CHR RECOMMENDS MURDER RAPS VS 10 TMG MEN"
The Commission on Human (CHR) rights Monday recommended the filing of murder charges against 10 members of the Traffic Management Group who were involved in the alleged "overkill" of three carjacking suspects on Nov. 7, 2005 in Ortigas Center, Pasig.
CHR said its findings against Senior Inspectors Henry Cerdon, Hansel Marantan, Samson Belmonte; Police Officers 3 Lloyd Soria and Rizalito Ramos; Police Officers 2 Jesus Fermin, Sonny Robrigado and Dexter Bernadas; and Police Officers 1 Fernando Gapuz and Josel Rey Lucena will be submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman this week.
The 10 officers, who are members of Task Force Limbas, have been placed under administrative relief since last year owing to a video footage showing a member of the team firing a gun at the bodies of the slain suspects.
From Philstar:
Murder raps recommended vs cops in Ortigas ‘overkill’
By Katherine Adraneda
The Philippine Star 05/30/2006
Six months after the Ortigas Center shooting incident that left three people dead, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) recommended yesterday the filing of multiple murder charges against 10 members of task force under the Traffic Management Group (TMG).
In a 36-page en banc resolution, the CHR said it found probable cause that there was "arbitrary deprivation of life" committed against suspected carjackers Anton Cu-Unjieng, Francis Xavier Manzano, and Bryan Anthony Dulay by the 10 TMG officers.
Named in the resolution as respondents were Senior Inspectors Hansel Marantan, Henry Cerdon, and Samson Belmonte; Police Officers 3 Lloyd Soria, and Rizalito Ramos Jr., POs2 Dexter Pascua, Jesus Fermin, Sonny Robrigado; and POs1 Fernando Rey Gapuz, and Josil Rey Lucena.
The CHR will submit its resolution and other pertinent documents related to the case to the Office of the Ombudsman for the filing of criminal and administrative cases, in accordance with Republic Act 6770.
The CHR resolution and documents will likewise be endorsed to the National Police Commission (Napolcom), Philippine National Police (PNP) and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
According to the CHR, forensic analysis and findings revealed that when the three men were flagged down by the Task Force Limbas operatives, they stopped the car, but were met with gunfire from the state agents, "who acted with criminal intent."
"Hence, the anti-carnapping operations implemented by the police operatives on the evening of Nov. 7, 2005 was feigned, premeditated, and treacherous, thus the killing of the victims by the said state agents qualifies the criminal act as a case of multiple murder," the CHR resolution stated.
The CHR said that actions of the TMG operatives contravened the very rules of engagement of the PNP, noting that the policemen "deliberately did not make any attempt to bring the mortally wounded victims to the nearest hospital."
"Instead, they wilfully and feloniously ensured the death of the victims with the use of excessive and/or lethal force as borne by the second round of gunfire even when the victims were already at the point of death," the CHR resolution stated.
On the gunshot wound sustained by Inspector Belmonte that was supposedly a result of the shooting incident, the CHR deemed it as "self-inflicted and probably accidental."
At around 10 p.m. of Nov. 7, 2005, three alleged members of the Valle Verde Gang were killed during an anti-carjacking operation at the Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
Police intercepted Cu-Unjieng, Manzano, and Dulay, who were on board a Nissan Exalta sedan at the corner of Garnet and Ortigas, following a tip from an informant.
The victims, however, allegedly refused to yield and fired at the pursuing lawmen, who retaliated in "self defense."
However, relatives and human rights group decried the "overkill" based on video footage taken by a television news crew, prompting the CHR investigation.
Meanwhile, TMG director Chief Superintendent Errol Pan insisted that the incident was a result of a legitimate operation despite the findings of the CHR that no shootout took place between officers and the three suspected car thieves.
"We believe that TMG operation was legitimate. They (TMG operatives) are ready to prove that," Pan said in reaction to the CHR findings.
He said that what CHR found was merely probable cause and that TMG personnel can still defend themselves in court when the charges of murder are filed against them.
Pan was not yet chief of the TMG at the time of the shootout. He was appointed months later after another group of TMG operatives nearly killed a businessman whom they mistook for a car thief. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe
From The Manila Times:
Six months after the Ortigas affair, the Commission on Human Rights has at last recommended the filing of multiple-murder charges against the 10 members of Task Force Limbas who allegedly gunned down three men they suspected of being carjackers.
The commission urged the Ombudsman and the National Police Commission to initiate the filing of charges against Police Senior Insp. Hansel Marantan, Senior Insp. Samson Belmonte, Police Officer 3 Lloyd Soria, PO3 Rizalito Ramos Jr., PO2 Dexter Pascua, Senior Insp. Henry Cerdon, PO2 Jesus Fermin, PO2 Sonny Robrigado, PO1 Fernando Rey Gapuz and PO1 Josel Rey Lucena.
The 10 police agents, the commission found, summarily executed inside a rented Nissan Exalta Anton Cu-Unjieng, Francis Xavier Manzano and Bryan Anthony Dulay, reportedly members of the Valle Verde Carnap Gang, on November 7, 2005, at the premises of Garner Street and AIC Gold Tower Building.
‘Feigned, premeditated and treacherous’
In a 35-page decision the commission said it found probable cause to charge the 10 policemen with multiple murder as the police operation was “feigned, premeditated and treacherous.”
“It is evident that when the victims were flagged down by the Task Force Limbas operatives, the victims merely stopped the car, but were suddenly met with gunfire from the state agents herein who acted with criminal intent,” the decision read.
Commission chairman Purificacion Quisumbing said government and state agents should not use excessive force in performing their duties.
“Any excessive and/or arbitrary exercise of authority, as in this case, violates the basic guarantee of a person’s right to life and to due process,” she said.
No shootout
Quisumbing said the forensic expert Raquel Fortun showed that the victims did not fire at the policemen. Therefore, there was no shootout.
“There is no evidence to show that any of the three occupants had fired his gun,” she said.
Quisumbing stressed that the commission did not in any way fail to provide due process to the policemen, who were given opportune time to rebut the charges against them.
She said the 10 policemen refused to appear at the entire proceedings and instead commissioned their lawyer, Jose Tomas Syquia, to attend in their behalf.
“Respondents herein were afforded the opportunity to air their side, but they chose to invoke their constitutional right to remain silent, albeit prematurely,” she said.
From The Daily Tribune
CHR files murder raps vs TMG men on 3 slain carjack ‘suspects’
The Commission on Human Rights appears determined to bring to genuine justice the violators of human rights in the Philippine National Police, specifically those involved in the alleged shootout between the PNP Traffic Management Group (TMG) members and the alleged members of a carjack gang who were slain by the TMG in what it called a shootout last Nov. 7, 2005 in Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
The CHR yesterday, submitting its full report on the shootout, recom-mended the filing of multiple murder charges before the Ombudsman against 10 TMG members, namely Senior Inspectors Henry Cerdon, Hansel Marantan, Samson Belmonte; Police Officers 3 Lloyd Soria and Rizalito Ramos; Police Officers 2 Jesus Fermin, Sonny Robrigado and Dexter Bernadas; and Police Officers 1 Fernando Gapuz and Josel Rey Lucena.
The CHR said the charges against the 10 policemen accused of an “overkill” are slated
to be submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman this week. The Ombudsman is, however, expected to drag its feet in filing charges against the police.
The 10 police officers, members of Task Force Limbas, were supposed to have been placed under administrative relief since last year, following a video footage showing a member of the team firing a gun at the bodies of the slain suspect, Anton Cu-Unjing, Francis Xavier Manzano and Anthony Brian Dulay, whom the TMG claimed were members of the Valle Verde gang.
Even paid witnesses were said to be brought in by the PNP, to back up the TMG’s version of the three being known carjackers.
The CHR, briefing the media, found that the three suspects were defenseless and could not have engaged in a shoot-out with the police traffic team.
The agency also intimated that the police team members charged with multiple murder, also planted evidence, and made it appear that the “suspects” were armed, with even a gun placed in the right hand of one slain suspect, after the murder. The slain “suspect” was later discovered to be left-handed and couldn’t have held the gun with his right hand.
It was also found, from ballistics tests, that all the shots came from the police, with one definitely coming from the TMG police.
From the 16 spent bullets taken from the vehicle, a Nissan Sentra of the three suspects, only three bullets came from the car.
It will be recalled that the TMG members and their police superiors immediately claimed a shootout with suspected carjackers, unaware that a cameraman took a video footage of the incident.
Still, the police maintained that the video could not be deemed reliable, as the angle of the shots came from a poor vantage point and that the cameraman failed to shoot the entire episode, which the police claimed told a different story.
But even other TV stations had footage after the alleged shootout, showing certain positions of the victims, which cast doubt on the version of the police.
Shortly after a public outcry, the police chiefs said they had placed the TMG members under suspension, following an internal investigation, but less than a week later, the same policemen said to have been under investigation, were back at their posts, with the superiors claiming that theirs was a legitimate operation and that their men should not be punished for doing their duty.
But the CHR also noted that the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials (adopted by the Eight UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders, Sept. 7, 1990) provides under the General Provisions, Principles 5 and 7 that: “Whenever the lawful use of force and firearms is unavoidable, law enforcement officials shall:
(a) Exercise restraint in such use and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offense and the legitimate objective to be achieved;
(b) Minimize damage and injury, and respect and preserve human life;
(c) Ensure that assistance and medical aid are rendered to any injured or affected person at the earliest possible moment;
(d) Ensure that relatives or close friends of the injured or affected person are notified at the earliest possible moment. And that governments shall ensure that arbitrary and abusive use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials is punished as a criminal offense under law.”
The CHR report said that these provisions emphasize that the use of force by law enforcement officials should be an exception. While it implies that law enforcement officials may be authorized to use force as reasonably necessary under the circumstances for the prevention of crime or in effecting or assisting in the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders, no force going beyond that may be used. The use of firearms is considered an extreme measure, hence, the principle of proportionality is to be respected.
“With the foregoing findings, the Commission is strongly convinced that the TMG Task Force Limbas operatives committed human rights violations in breach of Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which the Philippines is a State party, which guarantees that: “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.”
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