The National Union of People's Lawyers is dismayed by the dismissal of the second Bloody Sunday case — calling it a regrettable development and a grave disservice to the victims.
According to the resolution dated Dec. 5 last year and released to the media Friday, the evidence was"insufficient to prove the culpability of all the respondents."in simultaneous search warrant operations conducted in Calabarzon provinces on March 9, 2021, dubbed Bloody Sunday.
"Here, however, complainants only made a sweeping allegation of conspiracy allegedly because respondents were present at, or near, the place of the incident. This alone is not sufficient to establish conspiracy," state prosecutors said in their 26-page resolution. The DOJ panel also noted that of the police officers named as respondents, two were only near the house but did not fire a shot; the investigator-on-case and the designated arresting officer were still walking towards the location; while the rest claimed they only acted as perimeter security and blocking force.
But for the DOJ panel, of the two versions of the story of the killing,"respondents' narration is more consistent with the documentary evidence submitted." It continued:"In fact, were it not for the violent actions initiated by the spouses, the operating teams would not have reacted and retaliated, as they were at the subject house primarily to serve and implement the search warrants. Thus, the allegation of extra-judicial killing is wanting."Defend Southern Tagalog, an alliance of human rights victims and human rights defenders, expressed"strong indignation" over the junking of the murder raps.
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