By JEFFREY DAMICOG
Department of Justice (DoJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra ordered on Tuesday an investigation into the killing of activist and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Randy Echanis in his Quezon City home.
The secretary said he has already instructed the DoJ’s Task Force on Extrajudicial Killings (EJK) to conduct the investigation.
“Upon the assumption that the subject was indeed peasant leader Echanis, I have directed the AO 35 task force on EJK to form a special investigating team to look into the incident,” said Guevarra who is the chairman of the Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Judicial Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture and Other Grave Violations of the Right of Life, Liberty and Security of Persons.
The inter-agency committee was formed in 2012 pursuant to AO 35 issued by then President Benigno Aquino III.
The secretary explained the role of Task Force on EJK include investigations on “the summary killings of persons on account of their advocacies, such as labor and peasant leaders, but not common crimes involving ordinary persons.”
“In view of the emerging confusion as to the identity of the subject, however, we shall await confirmation by the family of the deceased that the subject was indeed peasant leader Echanis,” Guevarra said.
“It is necessary to confirm the identity of the victim before the task force on EJK starts its investigation of the incident,” he pointed out.
Though the family has already the identified the body to be Echanis, police identified him in its police report as Manuel Santiago based on the identification card found from him.
BODY SNATCHED
Meanwhile, Echanis’ wife, Erlinda, disclosed that her husband’s body was “forcibly” taken by police officers from the funeral where his family brought him in Quezon City late Monday night.
“I condemn the persistent harassment of PNP La Loma-QCPD and their brazen act of snatching the remains of my husband… Tonight, we have recovered his remains and transferred it to a funeral of our choice. Tonight, more than 10 policemen from La Loma PNP forcibly took the cadaver and will return it to Pink Petal Funeral Homes in La Loma, Quezon City,” she said in a statement posted on Anakpawis Facebook page around 11:20 p.m.
She said she identified the body of her husband, “which bore torture marks, multiple stab and gunshot wounds.”
But the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) identified Echanis in its police report as a certain Manuel Santiago, based on an identification card recovered from him.
The QCPD also said that Echanis’ killing was a “stabbing incident.” But according to his death certificate, his immediate cause of death is “gunshot wounds.” There is still no autopsy report as of posting.
In a photo circulating online, Echanis sustained swollen eyes.
“Relatively, the landlady of the apartment, confirmed that the names appearing in the identification cards are similar to how she has known the victims, Louie Tagapia and Manuel Santiago,” the police report added.
Echanis, 72, and his neighbor Louie Tagapia, 48, were stabbed to death around 1:35 a.m. inside their rented home in Barangay Nova Proper in Novaliches, the QCPD said, adding that five unidentified individuals were behind their killing.
Echanis, who was a long-time NDPF consultant and a member of the NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee on Socio-Economic Reforms, was involved in peace talks with the Duterte administration from 2016 to 2017.
He was also the deputy secretary general of militant peasant organization Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and a former Anakapwis nominee in the 2010 elections.
Former Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao said the elderly activist was undergoing medical treatment and was unarmed when his house was raided.
“Our anger is beyond words. This is a culture of extrajudicial killings with impunity under the Duterte regime,” Casilao said in a statement.
