Militant groups unhappy with court-martial of soldiers in B’laan killings.

By Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao
November 2, 2012

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Militant groups said Friday the court-martial proceedings the military has announced against 13 soldiers involved in the Oct. 18 killing of the wife and two children of a B’laan anti-mining activist in Davao del Sur was not enough.

Ryan Lariba of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan chapter in the South Cotabato-Sultan Kudarat-Sarangani (Socksargen) area said in a statement that an independent investigation of the killings would settle the issue against the military.

While hunting down  Dagil Capion, who has been waging an armed resistance against Xstrata’s Sagittarius Mines Inc., a team of soldiers from the Army’s 27th Infantry Battalion killed the anti-mining B’laan leader’s wife, Juvy, and two of the couple’s children, Pop, 13, and John, 8, last Oct. 18.

A subsequent incident report released by the Eastern Mindanao Command said the soldiers were responding to an aggression and did not know that Juvy and the two children were in the hut they peppered with automatic rifle shots.

The Eastmincom said the deaths of Capion’s wife and two sons were the result of an encounter between the soldiers and a band led by Capion.

As the outrage over the killings snowballed, the Eastmincom’s 10th Infantry Division, the unit that has direct supervision over the 27th IB, announced that it was conducting an inquiry into the incident.

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