Onion farmer who appeared at Senate inquiry confirms police visits

The onion farmer who appeared at a recent Senate hearing confirmed on Friday that the police visited her house multiple times, asking her to sign a statement in connection with the death of her husband.

Interviewed on Super Radyo dzBB, Merly Gallardo said the police interviewed her and encoded her answers, but she refused to sign the document due to some inaccuracies. 

"Yun lang statement ko, gusto nilang papirmahan. Yun lang ang inaano dito. Sila ang gumawa. Ako ang magsasalita, sinusulat lang nila. Hindi po. Hindi ko po maintindihan kaya hindi na ako nagpirma," she said.

(They want me to sign my statement. They wrote it. They were writing down what I was saying. I did not sign it because I don’t understand.)

"May kaunting mali. Sinabi doon hindi nalugi si Tatay (There is a little error. It was mentioned there that Tatay did not suffer from financial losses)," she added, referring to her husband.

Gallardo believes her husband committed suicide as a result of financial losses related to their onion production.

Senator Imee Marcos said on Thursday that she had received information that the police went to the house of Gallardo and other onion farmers to investigate the reported suicide of five farmers.

Marcos said the order came from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

She showed a photo of an advisory from DILG Pangasinan, signed by Director Virgilio Sison, that sought additional information regarding the five farmers.

According to Marcos, the farmers were being pressured to sign a document indicating that they were retracting their statements during the Senate investigation.

Gallardo said the police went back and forth to their home around eight times, including late at night or around 11 p.m.

 "Natakot ako, nagulat din kasi pabalik-balik, Aburido ako (I was scared and surprised because they keep returning to my home. I felt disturbed)," she said.

Young Farmers Challenge Club of the Philippines national president Jerome Laceda, who is assisting the family, wondered why the authorities wanted the cause of death changed. 

"Nagtataka kami pinapabago ang cause of death, tapos na, settled na yun. Okay na sila nanay. Wala silang nirereklamo or sinampang kaso. Ang tanong bakit kailangan ng affidavit?" he told Super Radyo dzBB.

(We are wondering why they want to change the cause of death of Gallardo’s husband, that was already settled. The family is already okay with it. The family did not file a case against anyone. The question is: why an affidavit is needed?)

Philippine National Police (PNP) public information office chief Police Colonel Redrico Maranan said the Bayambang, Pangasinan police only followed the directive of the DILG provincial office to validate the reports of suicide.

Maranan said that Gallardo’s husband took his own life due to their struggle with paying their debt.

"Ang nakikita po kasi namin, nakikita po dito sa salaysay na dinraft po ng ating PNP na galing din naman sa interview kay nanay ay dahil sa utang, nagkaroon po siya ng malaking utang umaabot ng P1.7 million, may ka-share siya," he told Super Radyo dzBB.

(What we see here, what we saw in the statement that the PNP drafted from the interview of Gallardo is that her husband committed suicide due to their debt. They had a debt amounting to P1.7 million, which they shared with another person.)

Maranan clarified that the police went back and forth to Gallardo’s house for her to check the corrected versions of her statement that were processed in the police station.

In a statement, Pangasinan Police director Police Colonel Jeff Fanged confirmed that they had received a request from Sison to validate the reports of suicide involving farmers.

"In relation to this, it was found out that Bayambang PNP acted on the request of Mr. Virgilio Sison, Provincial Director, DILG to validate the report as published in the media ‘Radio Mindanao Network’," he said.

According to Super Radyo dzBB’s Mark Makalalad, Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos said he would ask Sison for an explanation about the incident.

GMA News Online reached out to NTF-ELCAC executive director Emmanuel Salamat for comment, but he has yet to respond. —VBL, GMA Integrated News