Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Probers to send ‘misencounter’ report to AFP chief

TACLOBAN CITY, July 2  – The Board of Inquiry (BOI), which was formed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to probe the "misencounter" between cops and soldiers in Samar, will submit on Wednesday the result of its investigation to AFP Chief of Staff Carlito Galvez.

BOI chairman Lt. General Rafael Valencia, the Philippine Army’s inspector general, said on Sunday they are confident of completing the investigation report soon and send it to the AFP chief by Wednesday.
“We will just submit the report to the AFP Chief of Staff. It will be his call if he will make the report public,” Valencia told reporters here.
The AFP BOI team checked the encounter site at Sitio Lunoy, San Roque village in Sta Rita, Samar on June 27. Soldiers of the 87th Infantry Battalion involved in the incident re-enacted the "misencounter."
The board is composed of personnel from the AFP general headquarters, Philippine Army main headquarters, and 8th ID based in Catbalogan City in Samar.
Six junior police officers were killed and nine others were wounded in the "misencounter" between patrolling lawmen and soldiers. Both teams were in the area, acting on report of sightings of New People’s Army in Sta. Rita town.
The investigation on the incident seeks to find out if coordination was done properly and if the information reached ground troops.
“We are also looking at the possibility that the standard operating procedure was not followed by both sides. It’s not yet clear, that is why we are still investigating it and looking at it closely,” Valencia added.
The military official clarified that their team is only focused on fact-finding and that they can only recommend further investigation and not to recommend for the appropriate office or agency to take legal action.
In a statement issued Saturday, Philippine Army 8th Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Raul Farnacio vowed to help “expedite the conduct of the investigation so that the truth will be established and ease the burden of sorrow of the bereaved families.”
“We will be objective and transparent to shed light on the incident and will make appropriate actions thereafter to those who will be proven to have committed any lapses or violated established rules and regulations,” Farnacio said.
The top military official in the region assured full cooperation in the ongoing investigation.
The Army issued a formal letter of apology a day after President Rodrigo R. Duterte claimed that the "misencounter" in Sta. Rita town is his fault, being the top commander of the military and the police.
“I’d like to tell you that the ultimate blame was on me being the Commander-in-Chief because I am their leader. There was a lot of tragic stories around the incident. I told the families to forget it since it was not intentionally done,” Duterte told the crowd gathered at the Balyuan Amphitheater for the Sangyaw Festival Parade of Lights on Friday night.
The Chief Executive delivered his speech after briefly visiting the wake of the slain policemen at the Philippine National Police (PNP) regional headquarters in Palo, Leyte and the wounded policemen at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center.
“You know, the Murphy’s Law operates the way it is. If things can go wrong, it will go wrong. And so I said to the police and soldiers, I am your commander and it’s all my fault. Let us forget the hurt. Allow the investigation to go on and let us see what develops in the future,” Duterte said. (RTA/PNA)


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