Karapatan Bikol and Defend Bicol: Stop the Attacks Network condemned the 31st IB for killing 24 year old worker James Quiñones on March 24 in Barangay Juan Adre, Donsol, Sorsogon.
Quiñones was then waiting for a boat bound for the town center to attend his pre-kindergarten child’s moving-up ceremony. His wife and child had gone ahead to the town. Residents reported hearing gunshots around 7 a.m. from an area about two mountains away from their village. Quiñones had returned home to check on his family and later went back to the shore to wait for a boat. While he was by the riverbank, more gunfire echoed from the position of a group of soldiers stationed nearby. Quiñones was found riddled with bullets. Witnesses said six bullets hit him.
The military claims Quiñones was struck by a stray bullet.
“My son was killed like an animal. That wasn’t a stray bullet… my son’s body was riddled with bullets,” James’s mother Lorna Quiñones said.
The Quiñones family is demanding justice and the withdrawal of soldiers from their barangay.
Fact-finding mission
A five-member team from Karapatan Bikol, Karapatan Sorsogon, and Anakpawis Bikol conducted a fact-finding mission (FFM) on April 4 in Barangay Juan Adre to investigate the incident and check on the family.
The group noted the heavy military presence at the barangay health center, old detention cell, and day care facility. The Quiñones family was not at home that day, so the team decided to leave. The soldiers stopped them as they were exiting the community. They were made to log their names and were interrogated separately. The soldiers forced them to sign a document stating they had not been harmed, then photographed them holding the signed paper. One Anakpawis member was ordered to open his wallet and phone while the contents were photographed. The harassment lasted nearly five hours.
The group strongly denounced the incident, saying it was a clear obstruction of the FFM’s objectives and a direct display of the military’s blatant abuse against the people of Bicol. They also called on the Commission on Human Rights and all relevant agencies to launch an independent and impartial investigation into the killing of Quiñones.
