De Lima says murder complaints vs. 'Bloody Sunday' cops a ‘big step’ for human rights

Detained Senator Leila de Lima on Monday welcomed the filing of murder complaints against 17 police officers who were involved in the serving of the search warrants in Batangas that led to the deaths of several activists in March 2021.

De Lima said the move was a welcome step in ensuring justice and accountability in the country.

“This development in the Bloody Sunday raid cases is a big step forward for the human rights community. Lalo na kung iisipin natin ang mga buhay at kalayaan na isinakripisyo (especially if we would think about the the lives and freedom sacrificed),” she said in a dispatch from Camp Crame where she is detained.

On March 7, 2021, at least nine activists were killed while six others were arrested after police authorities conducted simultaneous police operations in Calabarzon.

Two of the victims were couple Ariel and Ana Evangelista, members of the Ugnayan ng Mamamayan Laban sa Pagwawasak ng Kalikasan at Kalupaan.

Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes said the police then entered the house of the Evangelistas in Batangas using a “questionable search warrant” which was among those issued for that region by several executive judges.

“The killings of the Evangelista couple, in the presence of their child who only managed to hide, was such a heinous crime,” Reyes said.

De Lima said the findings of the National Bureau of Investigation that there was a “deliberate intention to kill” the Evangelistas was not surprising.

She noted that the police conducted the operation in the dark and “deliberately obscured their identities” by wearing bonnets. Other members of the operating team then told neighbors to close the windows and warned guests of several cottages not to take videos, she added.

“These are far from the standard protocols for legitimately implementing search warrants. Furthermore, the reported trajectory of the bullet, and location of the entry and exit of the fatal wounds all belied the go-to ‘Nanlaban’ defense theory favored by cops,” De Lima said.

Moreover, she said that it “remains sickening and horrifying” as this incident might also have happened to other activists, drug suspects, and ordinary people involved in the alleged extrajudicial killings in the country.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced they will start the preliminary investigation of the case filed against uniformed personnel associated with the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

“Truly, this is the only proper turn that this case could take, especially given evidence of irregularities in an operation that was supposedly merely for the implementation of a search warrant,” De Lima said.

She added that the NBI complaint should serve as a warning to law enforcers to not allow themselves “be used as weapons” against the people they vowed to serve and protect.

Last March, De Lima filed Senate Resolution No. 681 urging the Congress to thoroughly investigate the said joint operations that led to the killings of activists.

In the said proposed Resolution, she underscored the need to scrutinize the Duterte administration’s counter-insurgency campaign in relation to the widespread allegations of human rights violation.

Aside from the “Bloody Sunday” deaths, De Lima also demanded justice for the killing of two members of farmers group Anakpawis in Sorsogon on Saturday.

The victims were identified as Silvestre Fortades, Jr. and Rose Marie Galias.

De Lima said that the public should not get used to these killings and heinous violations of human rights.

“The killings will never stop as long as impunity remains to be a state policy. Ganito ba ang gusto nating buhay sa susunod na namang anim na taon? Hindi tayo kailanman dapat masanay sa ganitong kalakaran (Is this how we want to live for the next six more years? We should never get used to this kind of dealing),” she added.—AOL, GMA News