SECURITY guards who opened fire at the group of presidential candidate Leody de Guzman in Quezon, Bukidnon last Tuesday that wounded four people claimed they did it in self-defense, according to the PNP.
PNP spokeswoman Col. Jean Fajardo said police investigators have identified three persons of interest who could be held criminally, and possibly administratively, liable for the shooting incident.
De Guzman went to Quezon, Bukidnon last Tuesday to have a dialogue with indigenous peoples (IPs) who are claiming part of a pineapple plantation in Barangay San Jose. The land dispute case is pending before a court.
Fajardo said indigenous people made a “surreptitious entry” into the property, prompting the security guards to fire shots. Fajardo said four were injured in the incident, three more than what police officials initially reported.
Citing the result of initial investigation, Fajardo said about 10 to 20 indigenous people entered the property, along with some non-IPs, armed with guns and bolos.
“They (security guards) said they fired warning shots to drive away our indigenous peoples brothers. And some of them of them (security guards) are claiming they (other side) have guns, not necessarily the indigenous peoples because it appears some of those who entered the property are obviously not indigenous peoples,” added Fajardo.
“They claimed they acted in self-defense,” Fajardo said of the security guards.
Fajardo said the guards told the police that the IPs “tried to attack them with bolos while they were driving them away, so they defended themselves.”
Fajardo said the self-defense claim of the security guards will be looked into by police investigators.
“But assuming, for the sake of argument that they were defending themselves, we will still look into the issue of whether they are authorized to bear firearms. We all know that we have an ongoing (election) gun ban,” said Fajardo.
“So that will be part of the investigation, in coordination with the Comelec, to check and verify if the agency of those in charge of the security of the plantation secured (gun ban) exemption from the Comelec to authorize them to carry firearms during their tour of duty,” Fajardo said, adding cooler heads should have intervened to prevent the shooting incident.
Fajardo said personnel from the PNP’s Regional Civil Security Unit (RCSU) in Northern Mindanao went to the site to conduct post-to-post inspection “to determine their (security guards) possible administrative and criminal liability.”
Fajardo said RCSU personnel seized eight shotguns, two 9 mm pistols and a .38 caliber from the security guards “for purposes of examination to determine which among these firearms were used fired.”
Fajardo said they are still investigating how many guards actually fired shots “but we have three persons of interest, all guards.”
“We are focusing on that because we have an eyewitness who said he saw the three persons of interest,” Fajardo, adding the three are not currently under the custody of police.
“Based on the report of the provincial director, they have persons of interest who are all guards. We are going to look into this in the coming days so that we can file charges once we get the statements of those guards and other witnesses,” said Fajardo.
However, Fajardo some said some of the guards wore masks during the incident.
President Duterte is committed to implement genuine agrarian reform that benefits the landless farmers until his last day in office, Communications Secretary and acting presidential spokesman Martin Andanar said.
Andanar issued the statement following calls by De Guzman for the President to end land grabbing activities in the country.
He said that under the term of Duterte, or from July 2016 to May 2021, the government distributed 229,289 hectares of agricultural lands that benefitted 166,217 beneficiaries.
He said the government also issued 57 Certificates of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADTs), covering 993,345.17 hectares of ancestral domains, which benefited 257,047 indigenous peoples from 2016 to June 2021.
“We therefore assure our people, including Ka Leody de Guzman, that our efforts to provide lands to landless farmers will continue until the end of the President’s term,” he said. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
