Sequel to Solana Attack
Report by Watch Tower Society’s branch servant in the Philippines
THE August 15, 1952, issue of The Watchtower, at page 492, carried the report of the attack on a Christian assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses at Solana, Cagayan, by town officials, police and other persons. One of Jehovah’s witnesses was killed and thirty-two were reported injured and requiring hospital treatment. The early arrival of the Philippine Constabulary from Tuguegarao, Cagayan, brought an end to the savage attack and doubtless prevented more people from getting killed or seriously injured. An officer of the Philippine Constabulary filed numerous charges against the attackers, including murder, frustrated murder, illegal possession of firearms, illegal discharge of firearms and tumultuous disturbance. About three months later the police and officials of Solana laid countercharges against Jehovah’s witnesses, including direct assault against a person of authority and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
Nearly two years went by before these charges were heard in the court of first instance of Tuguegarao, Cagayan. Judge B. Quitoriano conducted the trial and rendered judgment. The provincial fiscal acted as prosecutor in all the cases and the witnesses of Jehovah were defended against the countercharges by Attorney K. V. Faylona, legal counsel for the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in the Philippines. The cases have now been concluded and judgment rendered by the court. The readers of this magazine will be interested in finding out how justice was administered.
CHARGES AND COUNTERCHARGES
Some of the minor charges were dismissed in the justice of the peace court but the more serious cases had the attention of the court of first instance. The first person to be tried was a policeman from Solana named Luis Carag. He was accused of the crime of frustrated murder against the person of Santos Tabios. The evidence brought out at the trial shows that Santos Tabios went to the municipal building to seek police protection for Jehovah’s witnesses after the attack began. Arriving at the municipal building he approached Luis Carag and requested help and protection from the police. Carag replied: “We are going to shoot you, all Jehovah’s, stand up and I am going to shoot you.” Tabios turned to run away. Carag fired at him but missed. He fired again and this time hit him in the right leg below the knee joint, breaking the bone, and Tabios fell to the ground unconscious. He was found later by members of the Constabulary and taken to the provincial hospital at Tuguegarao.
Having established these facts the court found Luis Carag guilty of the crime of discharge of firearms with serious physical injuries and sentenced him to an indeterminate period of imprisonment of from six months to two years, eleven months and eleven days. The right of the offended party to recover civil damages in a separate civil action was reserved by the court.
A countercharge was filed against Santos Tabios by the police of Solana accusing him of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. However, the evidence brought out during the trial of Luis Carag was sufficient to cause a dismissal of this charge. Carag stated that on the evening when the attack took place he heard gunfire and called his brother, who was also a municipal policeman of Solana. The two of them rode in a jeep to the municipal building and on the way they picked up the chief of police. While driving to the municipal building they saw a person who was carrying a Japanese rifle and who, all of a sudden, fired at the chief of police. The three of them got out of the jeep and Carag shouted at the person to stop. However, the person did not stop but ran away; so Carag shot him and he fell to the ground.
The three policemen approached the wounded person and, according to their testimony, found him to be Santos Tabios. Beside the fallen man was a Japanese rifle. They did not move either the body or the rifle but left him there until the Philippine Constabulary arrived about nine o’clock and took the injured man to the hospital. Carag stated that they also confiscated the rifle allegedly found beside Tabios.
However, the rifle that was allegedly found beside Tabios was never produced in court. When the Constabulary in Tuguegarao was cited to produce the rifle before the justice of the peace court, an officer replied in the following manner to that honorable court: “Reference to the subpoena duces tecum sent by that Honorable Court citing me to appear and bring the firearm and ammunitions allegedly taken from the accused Santos Tabios, I have the honor to inform that Honorable Court that I have not taken any firearm nor ammunitions from the possession of the accused Santos Tabios.”
A sergeant of the Constabulary was summoned to appear in court during the trial and to produce the aforesaid Japanese rifle. When he did appear the defense counsel of Carag chose not to present him as a witness. The court was therefore compelled to believe that there was no such firearm found beside Santos Tabios and the countercharge had no basis in fact.
The court said: “The Court believes that Lieutenant Flores did not file a complaint for illegal possession against Santos Tabios because probably the Constabulary did not really find any firearm. The court finds no reason to suspect the actuation of the Constabulary in connection with the incident that took place in the night afore-mentioned. Besides Santos Tabios went to the municipal building to ask for help and protection from the municipal police; consequently, it is difficult for this court to believe that Santos Tabios would take along with him a Japanese rifle, knowing that he did not have a license to carry said firearm.” The countercharge against Tabios for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition was therefore dismissed.
GUILTY OF MURDER
Martin Berja, a policeman of Solana, Cagayan, was tried for murder. He was accused of stabbing to death Valentin Panaga, one of Jehovah’s witnesses, on the night of April 20 during the attack on the circuit assembly held in the municipality of Solana. The evidence showed that Berja was in his house when the attack first began. He heard two shots and then his father-in-law arrived and said that Jehovah’s witnesses and especially Panaga had badly beaten the municipal secretary in their assembly hall.
He immediately ran to the assembly place, drew his hunting knife and began stabbing persons that he could approach. He admitted stabbing six persons including Valentin Panaga. The latter had taken refuge in a private home on the assembly lot. Berja followed him into the house and there inflicted four stab wounds on him that resulted in his death the same night in the municipal hospital in Tuguegarao.
The court found Martin Berja guilty of homicide and sentenced him to prison for eight years and one day and to indemnify the heirs of the deceased Valentin Panaga in the sum of ₱6,000 (U. S. $3,000).
A countercharge had been filed by the mayor of Solana against the brother who served as district servant when the attack took place. This brother is a graduate of the fifteenth class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead. He was charged with the crime of disobedience to a person in authority, namely, the municipal mayor, because he refused to obey the order of the mayor to go to the municipal building for protection. The mayor was himself killed in an ambush in September of the same year, 1952. The court found there was no basis for the charge against the district servant and therefore dismissed it. In rendering decision the court said:
“Mayor Carag had no authority to arrest Adolfo Dionisio inasmuch as the latter was not caught in the act of committing an offense, nor had he committed a grave or serious crime. If the accused refused to go with the mayor, it was his legal right to so refuse. When the accused refused to be arrested, his refusal did not constitute disobedience or resistance, since the Mayor was without authority to arrest him.
“The accused was arrested by Mayor Carag not because he committed an offense but only ‘for protection.’ If the accused did not care or ask for protection, he was under no obligation to submit to the Mayor’s protection. But the evidence showed that Adolfo Dionisio and other members of Jehovah’s witnesses were maltreated at the municipal building, in which case the arrest was done not for the purpose of protecting them but rather to maltreat them.”
Six of Jehovah’s witnesses were accused in a countercharge of the crime of assault against an agent of authority. In this case the agent of authority was Pascual Bacud, a policeman of Solana, Cagayan. He alleged that he suffered three wounds that required six to nine days’ medical attention and incapacitated him from engaging in his ordinary labor for the same period of time. The evidence showed that policeman Bacud tried to take Santios Tabios out of the assembly place by force in order to interview him and find out who was the person that had allegedly insulted the son of the municipal secretary earlier in the day. Tabios resisted the attempt of policeman Bacud to take him by force. He was joined by five others of Jehovah’s witnesses who were acting as attendants (ushers) at the assembly. The court dismissed the charge of assault against an agent of authority with the following statement:
“The facts presented and proven do not constitute the crime of assault against an agent of authority. Policeman Bacud had no authority to take Santos Tabios out of the assembly hall, much less arrest him without a warrant of arrest issued by competent authority. When he tried to arrest and take Santos Tabios in the foregoing manner, he was guilty of abuse of authority, and he was not in the exercise of his official functions. (P. vs. Tilos, 36 OG. p. 54)
“‘Held: When an agent of authority uses unnecessary force or violence to make him respected, he goes beyond the limits of his powers and from that moment he acts as a private person (P. vs. Damo, Of. Gaz. No. 9 (5 Supplement p. 58)).’”
The court found, however, that all six accused participated in hitting policeman Bacud in defense of Tabios and for this reason the court found all six guilty of slight physical injuries and sentenced each of them to pay a fine of ₱15 (U. S. $7.50). The fine was paid and all of them were set free.
In this way the court disposed of all the charges and countercharges arising out of the vicious attack against Jehovah’s faithful Christian witnesses at Solana, Cagayan. The Court adhered firmly to the law of the land and rendered judgment in accordance therewith.
In due time Jehovah God the great Judge of heaven and earth will execute judgment against all those who have defamed his name and persecuted and tormented his faithful witnesses even to death. We patiently await that great day of vindication and in the meantime we will go on praising and blessing the name of Jehovah our God every day and forever.