Human rights groups belied the military’s claim that the killing of three family members of an indigenous people’s tribe in Abra was a handiwork of the rebel New People’s Army (NPA).

Abra Human Rights Movement, as well as militant groups, point to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) itself as the culprit.

The three victims, Freddie Ligiw, Eddie Ligiw and their father Licuben Ligiw went missing since March 2 and found dead in a shallow grave near their farm hut on March 8.

According to the Abra-based rights group, the victim’s family left Edie and Licuben in their farm hut while they went home at Sitio Sucaw, Domenglay, Licuan-Baay, Abra on March 2. On the same day, Freddie told his family that he will go to work at the small scale mining area, but will see his father first in the farm hut.

The three were expected to go home that night but they did not show up. The following day, the family of the victims went to look for them, but they were not at the farm house or the mining site.

On March 7, 2014, a search team composed of 50 residents of Domenglay, Licuan-Baay found a shallow grave near the victims’ farm hut and reported it to authorities. The victims were exhumed on the afternoon of March 8 by members of the Philippine National Police.

They were in fetal position and piled one after the other. All of them were tied -up and Freddie was gagged.

Media reports quoted military officials saying that the three victims were killed by the NPA and Freddie was a former member of the group who surrendered last March 2011.

But rights group Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) denied that the three were victims of the NPA. “We do not subscribe to the AFP’s claim that the massacre was perpetrated by the NPA,” said Audrey Beltran, deputy secretary general of CHRA.

Beltran observed that the NPA has been gaining broader support from the Cordillera peoples. “ It is a well known fact: The NPA will not massacre civilians as this would result to losing their so-called mass base, apart from being known of their strict adherence to International Humanitarian Law,” said Beltran.

The group accused the 41st Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army as behind the killings.

Military operations

Beltran said the military unit has been conducting military operations in the area around the time the three went missing.

On February 19, the 41st IB conducted a military operation in the area and took Freddie  with them to serve as a guide in the military operation against the NPA. The CHRA claimed that Freddie was due to file a human rights violation report about his ordeal on March 4.

“This is no mass grave. Rebel executions is a worn-out lie of the AFP, meant to overshadow the fact that the AFP is victimizing unarmed civilians under its counter-insurgency program Oplan Bayanihan,” added Piya Macliing Malayao, spokesperson of Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP).

An indigenous leader herself, Malayao stressed that the three victims were civilians who were active in community struggles.

“The Ligiws are civilians, but are a thorn in (the military’s) side because of the family’s involvement in organizations that condemned the militarization and human rights violations exacted by the AFP to the people in the province,” Malayao said.

The Ligiw’s belongs to the Tingguian and Binodngan tribe and members of Anakbayan and the local peasant group Kastan.

The group added that progressive organizations in the Cordilleras were subjected to political vilification campaign of the military, accusing these organizations as fronts of the NPA and maliciously implicating the members including victims as supporters of the armed revolutionary group.

Harassing youth leaders

Vencer Crisostomo, Anakbayan chairperson, condemned the killing. “Given the recent attacks in the mainstream media by members of the military against Anakbayan, there is clearly only one group in the entire country with an interest in assassinating our members,” Crisostomo said.

Filipino youth leaders in the United States also condemned the military for its alleged involvement in the massacre of the Ligiw family.

“We know what the company line is of the US backed Arroyo administration–they will claim he was an anti-government militant or part of a communist front, and this still doesn’t justify the extra-judicial killing of youth organizers for social change that violates international law. But given that the brother a youth organizer of a legal organization, this is now a killing way beyond the boundaries of national and international law. A killing of a nation’s most vital resource: its youth,” stated Freedom Allah Siyam, community organizer and founding member of Anakbayan Seattle, the first overseas chapter of Anakbayan.

For his part, Anakbayan USA National Chairperson Yves Nibungco said, “The murder of Freddie and his family is part of a disturbing trend of state-sponsored violence against activists since Aquino came into power in 2009.”

Romeo Hebron, chairperson of Anakbayan-Los Angeles, likened the recent spate of rights violations to the abduction and physical and psychological torture of Filipino-American activist Melissa Roxas while doing community health work in Tarlac in 2009.

Roxas, who is also a member of the artists’ group Habi Arts in LA, was also accused by the military of being an NPA rebel.

Another killing

Meanwhile in Southern Tagalog, human rights group Karapatan also condemned the killing of a NPA member by the military.

Roberto Campaner, was caught alive but was wounded in an encounter between the NPA and the 85th Infantry Battalion on March 1 in Lopez, Quezon.

Later that day, the group found Campaner in a Hospital in Lopez already dead. The group said the body of Campaner bore signs of torture.

With reports from Hiyasmin Quijano in Los Angeles, USA