Probe ordered on alleged Marine torture video

The Philippine Navy chief has ordered a probe on a video showing what appears to be Marines beating up at least three men, believed to be apprehended suspects, according to a Navy spokesman. Navy chief Rear Adm. Alexander Pama has already ordered a formal investigation into the authenticity of the video, which was uploaded on the social networking site Facebook on Tuesday, Navy spokesman Capt. Giovanni Bacordo said. The two-minute video, posted on the Facebook account of one “Bautista Peter John" whose FB wall mostly contains human-rights related issues and events in Mindanao, has generated condemnation from viewers, who believe this is yet another case of military torture and violence. The video shows at least ten armed men wearing combat fatigues and army boots kicking and punching at least three men in civilian clothes who looked like farmers, in an unspecified sparsely-forested area. The men were hogtied and lying helpless on the ground, their blindfolds covering much of their faces. The hogtied men, sometimes silent, sometimes grunting and moaning in pain, were later forced to stand up and led to a vehicle to be brought to yet another undisclosed location while one of the uniformed men repeatedly shouted the words, “Doon na natin katayin iyan [We’ll slaughter them there]! One of the alleged Marines, who was apparently taking the video, said “Ganyan ang Marines [This is how Marines do it]," while the others continued beating up the three hapless civilians. Bacordo said Pama ordered the probe after personally seeing the video recording. “The… Philippine Navy has directed the Naval Inspector General to conduct formal investigation to ferret out the truth relative to that video that was uploaded [on] Facebook for further appropriate action as results would warrant," Bacordo said. Bacordo added the Philippine Marine Corps (PMC) is also checking the authenticity of the video. “If found authentic, the PMC will conduct [an] investigation to identify the personnel involve[d] and the extent of their culpability," said Bacordo. GMA News is still trying to get in touch with the Facebook user who first uploaded the video, for further information.—JMA/JV, GMA News