DOJ pressed to file case in court vs noted botanist's killers

Two years have gone by since noted Filipino botanist Leonard Co and his two companions were killed in an encounter between government troops and communist rebels in Leyte, but no case has been filed in court yet.   On Thursday, human rights advocates trooped to the Department of Justice (DOJ) office in Manila to demand that a resolution for the preliminary investigation being conducted by the agency be finally released.   "Every day that passes without any resolution to the case is another day of injustice to the families of the victims of the Kananga killings,” said Dr. Giovanni Tapang, convenor of the Justice for Leonard Co Movement.   “Bringing the perpetrators to justice is the least that can be done to compensate for the pain suffered by friends and families of the victims," he added.   The military claimed Co, Sofronio Cortez and Julius Borromeo were killed in a crossfire in Kananga town when an Army unit clashed with New People’s Army rebels in the area on November 15, 2010.   An independent investigation made by a group of scientists from the Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (Agham), however, belied the military's claim. Policarpio Balute, a farmer who served as a guide for Co’s research team and who survived the incident, also contradicted the military’s version of the incident.   At the time of the incident, Co was conducting a research on tree species suitable for a forest restoration project by the private firm Energy Development Cooperation (EDC) called BINHI Program. The project aims to plant 10,000 hectares of endemic and endangered plants over the next 10 years.   According to Agham's observation report, gunshot wounds on Co's body showed that the military could have been on top of a hill when they fired toward the direction of the victims.   Last October 11, lawyer Evalyn Ursua, counsel for the Co family, filed with the DOJ a motion to resolve, but the panel of prosecutors probing the incident has yet to respond to the motion.   Asked what is taking the case too long and what the DOJ is doing to expedite the case, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, at a press conference on Thursday, said: "I have already asked Prosecutor General Claro Arellano to exactly verify the status ng case."   "I gave instruction to expedite the resolution kapag ripe na ang resolution," she added.   According to Justice for Leonard Co Movement, none of the soldiers from the Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion who were alleged to be responsible for the incident have been summoned to the courts.   "We have done various efforts in urging the concerned agencies to speed up the resolution to persecute perpetrators of crimes against environmental advocates," said Tapang. — Mark D. Merueñas/KBK, GMA News