HOUSE of Representatives Minority Leader Marcelino “Nonoy” Libanan has urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to order the creation of an independent fact-finding commission to investigate the extrajudicial killings associated with the previous administration’s controversial war on drugs.
“We urge the President to form a panel – similar to the Agrava Fact-Finding Board – that will probe the summary killings and identify all individuals who may be held criminally liable,” Libanan said.
“Just like the Agrava board, the proposed commission should be independent from the legislative and executive branches of government,” Libanan added.
“It should consist of distinguished individuals who are highly regarded for their fairness and impartiality, and who are not politically aligned,” he continued.
Libanan, a lawyer by profession, served as chairperson of the House committee on justice when he represented Eastern Samar’s lone congressional district. He is now a party-list representative.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin earlier stated that the Marcos administration “places the highest importance on the fair dispensation of justice and on the universal observance of rule of law” in the ongoing investigations into the summary execution of drug suspects.
The five-member Agrava Fact-Finding Board investigated the August 21, 1983 assassination of former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. at the Manila International Airport.
The board was chaired by the country’s first woman judge, retired appellate court Justice Corazon Agrava, alongside lawyer Luciano Salazar, businessman Dante Santos, educator Amado Dizon, and labor leader Ernesto Herrera, who was later elected senator.
Within 11 months, the board took testimonies from 194 witnesses at 146 public hearings, and examined more than 1,400 photographic exhibits.
The board concluded that Aquino was killed by a military conspiracy led by then-Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Fabian Ver.
In 1990, the Sandiganbayan sentenced 16 soldiers, including Brig. Gen. Luther Custodio, to double life imprisonment for the assassination of Aquino and fall guy Rolando Galman. Ver died in Thailand in 1998.|
