• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Senator Risa Hontiveros said on Tuesday, April 28 that it is the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) that can determine all the truths behind the deaths of 19 individuals during the gunbattles between Philippine Army soldiers and remnants of the New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Toboso, Negros Occidental on April. 19.
Hontiveros, who attended Universal Health Care Summit in Talisay City, said she is supporting the full, objective and impartial probe of the CHR to determine the real truth on what had really transpired.
“Only on the basis of truth that there can be justice for any who should be given justice. Only on the basis of truth and justice, we can build peace, which we have been longing for so long,” she added.
Hontiveros said that she appreciates the statements of the Diocese of San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza and the CHR as well as the openness of Toboso Mayor Richard Jaojoco on what had really happened and the help that the national government may extend to them.
While the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives called for an inquiry on the Toboso incident, Hontiveros said nobody has filed such resolution for an inquiry.
“But I think all eyes are focused on the CHR as a constitutional body expected to investigate such this big incident,” she added.
Hontiveros, also an activist during her younger days, expressed concern on the reported involvement of foreigners in the local armed conflict, adding that she hopes CHR will also look into it.
Among the casualties were two Americans, as confirmed in the statements issued by Bayan-USA and Anakbayan-USA, which have been tagged by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict as legal organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front.
AnakBayan-USA confirmed that two American nationals — Lyle Prijoles and Kai Dana-Rene Sorem — were among those who died in the Toboso encounter.
Authorities reported that both individuals had entered the country in March and were later found to be involved in armed hostilities alongside NPA members. | GB
