ILOILO CITY – The families of the seven individuals who were killed in an alleged shootout in Antique in 2018 are appealing to the Supreme Court (SC) to review the dismissal of war crime cases against officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Panay Alliance Karapatan said the families of Felix Salditos, Peter Mecenas, Jayson Talibo, Liezel Bandiola, Jason Sanchez, Eldie Labinghisa, and Karen Ceralvo, who were killed in San Jose de Buenavista, the provincial capital of Antique, in August 2018 recently filed a petition before the SC for a review of the dismissal of the cases by the Ombudsman.
Authorities maintained that they were alleged New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who engaged the police and military who served the warrants of arrest against Ceralvo and Talibo, both charged for rebellion and frustrated murder, in a shootout.
Their families and Karapatan maintained that they were staff members of the National Democratic Front negotiating with the government for peace.
In August 2019, they filed a complaint before the Ombudsman. It was dismissed after the Ombudsman found that out that they failed to substantiate their accusations against the police and the military.
Karapatan backed their appeal. “We call on the Supreme Court to ensure that the Philippine government complies with its legal obligations to strictly apply humanitarian and human rights law during armed conflict and to investigate and punish crimes attributed to state forces,” Karapatan said.