MANILA, 5 March 2004 — A government-organized commission to investigate last year’s bombings in Davao has cleared former Defense Chief Angelo Reyes and Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus of involvement, but a second commission organized by activist groups claimed it had found evidence of military involvement.
“There is no evidence linking either Reyes or Corpus to the bombings,” a Malaca?ang Palace statement said, quoting a report by the Maniwang Commission.
Monsignor Pedro Maniwang heads the commission, which President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo formed last year to investigate allegations that Reyes and Corpus, then head of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, masterminded the bombings at the Davao International Airport and the Sasa Wharf that killed over 20 people and injured more than 150 others.
Junior officers who staged a mutiny last July 27 in Makati made the accusations against Reyes and Corpus. They also protested the alleged corruption in the military.
Army Capt. Milo Maestrecampo, one the mutiny leaders, had alleged that a superior ordered him to bomb a mosque in Davao also in 2003.
Reyes and Corpus resigned after the short-lived rebellion, but they have since been assigned to new posts. Reyes now heads the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (Naktaf) while Coprus is chief of the military Civil Relations Service (CRS).
The mutiny leaders are detained at the military headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo and are facing rebellion charges before civilian and military courts.
‘Truth Commission’
In its own report, the independent panel called the Mindanao Truth Commission cleared three Moro separatist groups from its original list of five “plausible suspects” as linked the military to the bombings.
In a 20 page-document called an “Abridged Progress Report,” which was submitted to Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. yesterday, the “Truth Commission” said it found no evidence to link the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Abu Sayyaf Group, and the so-called “Mindanao Third Force” to the “mystery bombings” in Mindanao.
On the other hand, said the report said, “there is substantial evidence that the AFP ordered a special operation to lob grenades at mosques,” as claimed by some junior military officers who participated in the foiled mutiny in Manila last year.
Three junior army officers testified before the Truth Commission that they refused to follow their commanding officer Major Rene Paje’s orders to bomb a mosque in Davao.
The officers were identified as Capt. Milo Maestracampo, one of the leaders of the failed mutiny; Lt. Enrico Dingle of the 12th Ranger Company assigned in Tuburan, Mawag, Compostella Valley province; and 2nd Lt. Kristopher Yasay, executive officers of the 12th Ranger Company.
But the Truth Commission said “the positive and credible account of Captain Maestracampo is credibly corroborated by other independent personal accounts.”
It said it was deplorable that despite the testimonies of the junior army officers, Paje was neither arrested nor investigated. Instead, he was “promoted” to the military general headquarters.
Surge in Violence
The Truth Commission was created as an independent and citizen-initiated fact-finding body by the Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao, a coalition of civic and church groups that met during the Mindanao Leaders Peace Conference in Cagayan de Oro in May 2003.
The Truth Commission report said a total of 33 bombings occurred in Mindanao under President Arroyo’s administration, resulting in 95 deaths and injuries to over 490 persons.
At the same time, the report also condemned the illegal arrest and detention as well as torture of several innocent civilians whom the police and the military tagged as masterminds of the Mindanao bombings. The commission asked that Congress conduct a deeper and more comprehensive investigation on the matter.
The Truth Commission said “there was no solid evidence to support the conspiracy theory of the state that the MILF leadership” was being the Davao airport and Sasa wharf bombings.
It noted that the criminal cases filed against alleged MILF “foot soldiers” who were accused by the police and the military as the masterminds of the bombings were dismissed by the courts for “lack of evidence.”
At the same time, the Truth Commission also dismissed as incredible the statements of the Abu Sayyaf group claiming responsibility for the Davao bombings.
