Batanes court orders arrest of 8 Coast Guard men in Balintang shooting

A Batanes court has ordered the arrest of eight Philippine Coast Guard personnel charged for the death of a Taiwanese fisherman in disputed waters in May last year.

In his order, Judge Ramon Baroña of the Batanes Regional Trial Court Branch 13 issued arrest warrants against the Coast Guard men facing homicide charges for the incident. A bail of P40,000 each was recommended for the suspects' temporary liberty.

The order was issued last April 7, but released to the media only on Tuesday.

"The undersigned presiding judge personally examined the records of the case and found the certification of the investigating prosecutors finding probable cause against the accused for the crime charged to have sufficient factual and legal basis," said the court.

"In view thereof, the undersigned said certification and on on the basis thereof hereby finds probable cause against. The accused for the offense charge(d)," it added.

Ordered arrested were:

• Commanding Officer Arnold Dela Cruz
• SN1 Edrando Quiapo Aguila
• SN1 Mhelvin Bendo
• SN2 Nicky Reynold Aurello
• SN1 Andy Gibb Ronario Golfo
• SN1 Sunny Galang Masangcay
• SN1 Henry Baco Solomon, and
• PO2 Richard Fernandez Corpuz

A Cagayan court earlier issued separate arrest warrants against Dela Cruz, Bendo, and SN1 Marvin Ramirez, and LTJG Martin Bernabe for obstruction of justice. The Cagayan court set a P12,000 bail. The four were charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly tampering with the video footage of incident.

In explaining why homicide charges were filed against the men and not murder, then-National Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Virgilio Mendez pronounced that there was "no conclusive justification for the use of deadly force against the fishing boat."

"The intent to ram is not clear, given the perspective offered by the video, and the fact that such maneuver could have been intended merely to escape, but not to ram, the Philippine craft," the NBI said in its 84-page report.

Taiwanese Hung Shih-cheng, 65, was killed during the May 9 incident at the Balintang Channel near the Luzon Strait when Coast Guard personnel sprayed bullets at his boat, claiming that the fisherman attempted to ram a Department of Agriculture-BFAR Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS-3001) vessel.

The Coast Guard men were with personnel from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) on board a BFAR vessel  when the shooting happened. — with Rouchelle R. Dinglasan/RSJ, GMA News