MANILA — A Department of Justice panel of prosecutors has affirmed the dismissal of murder complaints against 17 cops who were tagged in the killing of a Batangas couple on Bloody Sunday.

In a resolution dated May 29, 2023 but released publicly only on Friday, state prosecutors denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Rosenda Lemita “for lack of merit.”

The motion sought to reverse the December 5, 2022 ruling of the panel junking the murder raps.

• DOJ clears 17 cops in 'Bloody Sunday' killings of Batangas fisherfolk leaders

Lemita’s daughter, Ana Mariz "Chai" Lemita-Evangelista, and her husband Ariel Evangelista, were killed in their cottage in Nasugbu, Batangas on March 7, 2021 during simultaneous service of search warrants by authorities in Batangas, Cavite, Rizal and Laguna which ended with nine activists killed.

Police claimed the couple resisted arrest by firing at the cops.

But the couple's 10-year-old son said he saw armed men dragging them to a nearby house where successive gunshots were later heard.

They were declared dead on arrival at a hospital with Ariel sustaining 4 gunshot wounds while Chai had 7.

Despite findings by the National Bureau of Investigation that there was “deliberate intent to kill,” DOJ prosecutors said there was no probable cause to charge the 17 cops with murder because there was no conspiracy as it was not established who shot the couple.

They also ruled the bullets found in their bodies came from “a single 5.56 firearm” which did not match the firearms issued to cops.

Prosecutors also ruled Ariel fired a gun since his paraffin test yielded a positive result.

In standing by their earlier ruling, the prosecutors said there was nothing in the motion for reconsideration “that would warrant the reversal of the findings of the panel.”

“The complaint did not sufficiently prove conspiracy, but merely relied on a baseless assumption that the Philippine National Police (PNP) conducted its operations specifically to kill spouses Evangelista,” the resolution said, noting that the claim of a “COPLAN ASVAL” to target the couple was not substantiated.

Instead, the prosecutors pointed to a pre-operation briefing implementing two search warrants as proof it was a legitimate police operation.

“Moreover, as there was no conspiracy, complainant failed to establish the person who actually killed the spouses, but only made a sweeping accusation against all police officers who participated in the operation,” the resolution added.

Prosecutors noted, what was only proven was that the bullets came from one 5.56mm firearm but the complainant did not submit a firearms identification report or any other document which can identify the owner of the firearm.

REACTION

Rights group Defend Southern Tagalog condemned the dismissal.

“The DOJ has now repeatedly ignored witnesses’ accounts and the NBI’s findings that found that the police officers and personnel had a deliberate intent to kill the Evangelista couple. One of the witnesses was the couple’s 10-year-old son who saw his unarmed parents being dragged by uniformed personnel to a nearby house where successive gunshots were eventually heard,” it said in a Facebook post.

“We are gravely dismayed by the DOJ’s continuous disservice to justice, especially in prosecuting the state’s forces responsible for the Bloody Sunday Massacre,” it added.

A DOJ panel had also junked the murder complaint against another set of 17 cops tagged in the killing of labor leader Manny Asuncion in Cavite on the same day while no other complaints have been filed in connection with the death of six other activists.

• DOJ panel junks murder raps vs 17 cops over labor leader's killing

“More than two years have passed since the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) brutally killed nine community leaders and activists including the Evangelista couple, yet the state forces behind these murders continue to escape accountability,” Defend Southern Tagalog said.

For rights group KARAPATAN, the dismissal of the murder raps is “another proof of the Marcos Jr. regime’s disinterest and even contempt for justice and accountability in the Philippines.”

“You have nine victims - all killed by the police who acknowledged and even bragged about conducting the operations - and yet you have ZERO perpetrators indicted, after more than two years when the bloody operations were conducted. How obviously skewed our justice system is when it comes to delivering justice for the poor and oppressed!,” it said in a statement.

Defend Southern Tagalog claimed the Evangelista family is now facing “threats, harassment, and intimidation” while Chai’s sister was once accused of violating the Anti-Terrorism Act.

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