Son of murdered peace consultants has a message for Sinas

MANILA, Philippines – A recently assassinated son of peace consultants from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) said Saturday that his elderly and ill parents could not have exchanged gunfire with police and that he could have fought for them in court if they would have. taken alive.

VJ Topacio, son of Agaton Topacio and Eugenia Magpantay, both 68, was responding to a statement made earlier by the head of the Philippine National Police, General Debold Sinas, who said that the couple, who spent many years in hiding communist, he would not have given up in silence. .

Police said they were going to serve a search warrant on the couple at their home in the city of Angono, Rizal province, at 3 am on November 25, when they were received by gunfire.

Colonel Joseph Arguelles, provincial director of Rizal police, said the couple “resisted arrest” and died in a shooting that followed. Police said they recovered two rifles, two .45-caliber pistols and two grenades from the home.

It was unclear if the couple was charged with a specific crime.

Sinas said in an interview with the ANC on Thursday that the family could seek an investigation if they believed the PNP committed a crime, but urged people “not to jump to conclusions.”

In response to Sinas in a Facebook post on Saturday, VJ, a human rights lawyer, said his parents would have called a lawyer instead of fighting.

“You don’t fight fair,” he told Sinas. “I would have asked you to arrest them. I could have fought for this in court. When they were killed, I wish you had allowed us to retrieve their bodies. But you hid them and didn’t hand them over right away. “

The head of the PNP explains

The Communist Party of the Philippines said the couple was ill and had already retired as NDFP peace consultants.

But age had nothing to do with it, Sinas said.

“They were leaders and they spent a lot of time in the underground movement. They were properly trained, ”he said.

Sinas defended the police action and said the order was carried out at that time of day to prevent Magpantay and Topacio from finding out.

“If it had been served during daylight hours, everyone would have seen it, they might have observers or contacts who could warn them and they probably would have escaped,” he said.

But another son, Tony Topacio, said in a separate Facebook post Thursday that he called the murder “an execution, a murder to the highest degree possible, a murder.”

“Overkill would be a huge understatement,” he said.

Tony described his father as “an artist throughout his life” who spent his time making bonsai.

He said his mother was “sickly and weak … who was a teacher all her life, in her last hours, would have been found armed with ‘pointy sticks’ that could be used to pierce the eyes of ugly enemies but generally used to to write . “

‘Simple retirees and the elderly’

VJ previously said that his mother suffered from diabetes and recently fell into a coma for four days, while his father was in constant pain due to an enlarged heart, a knee injury and a frozen shoulder.

“There is simply no way that the elderly couple could put up resistance, much less armed, against dozens of police,” he said.

Tony described his parents as “simple retirees and elderly who simply [wanted] stay alone in peace after a lifetime of defending the oppressed, farmers, peasants, workers and Filipinos. “

“They could not, overnight, summon their inner Keanu Reeves and unleash all the skills necessary to repel the ‘tokhang’ -like maneuvers that became popular early in the Duterte regime, but were born much earlier in the south. in the past, “he said. said.

Reeves is a Hollywood actor, popular for his action movies.

The brothers also said police made a detour before they could retrieve their parents’ remains.

VJ said they learned of their parents’ deaths only from their neighbors, not from the police.

When the brothers tried to retrieve the remains, the police ordered them to go from one place to another: from a police station in Rizal, to other police stations in Angono and Antipolo, and to the Vicente Lim camp in Laguna province.

“Fortunately, my brother was able to locate them at Antipolo Memorial Homes, where he was able to identify our parents,” VJ said.

Still, the police did not immediately turn over the bodies, demanding that his brother present identification for their parents.

When they finally recovered the remains, the police did not give them documentation on their deaths, such as an investigation, a legal doctor or even just a one-off report, VJ said.

“We literally got zero [papers]. We were only able to recover the bodies, ”he said.

He told the Inquirer on Saturday that his parents’ remains had already been cremated.

The brothers had already requested the help of the Human Rights Commission to investigate the murder.

Topacio and Magpantay were the last NDFP consultants killed this year.

Randall Echanis was beaten and stabbed to death in Quezon City in August. Another consultant, Randy Malayao, was shot and killed while sleeping inside a bus in Nueva Vizcaya in January.

President Duterte ended talks to end the 52-year-old insurgency in 2018, saying rebels continued to target soldiers and police despite ongoing negotiations.

—With a report from Patricia Denise M. Chiu

Read next