Ferrazini, 44, was shot by operatives of the NPA’s Ka Paking Guimbaolibot Red Partisan Brigade on February 2 near Magallanes Street. He suffered four gunshot wounds and died February 4.
His family owns the Mercantile Corporation which operates, among others, Merco, the oldest ice cream and cake shop.
In a “Statement of Self-Criticism on the Ferrazini Killing” issued today, Rigoberto F. Sanchez, spokesperson of the Merardo Arce Command, said that after issuing a statement on February 4 claiming responsibility for the “punitive action” against Ferrazini, the SMRPC-CPP and the AMC-SMROC-NPA “conducted an internal investigation” on the matter “to clear the air in the light of various reactions from within and outside the revolutionary movement.”
Sanchez was the author of the February 4 statement.
Sanchez in his February 25 statement, said the internal investigatio concluded that “the grounds on which a lower unit command of New People's Army based their decision to mete out the particular action taken against Vicente Ferrazini are insufficient to warrant the maximum penalty of death.”
“Further, the implementation by the Ka Paking Guimbaolibot Red Partisan Brigade (KPGRPB) of the said flawed decision by a lower unit command of the NPA was likewise found incorrect,” Sanchez wrote.
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte had immediately denounced the killing, saying Ferrazini was a civilian and had no blood debts to the revolutionary movement.
Sanchez on February 4 said Ferrazini ignored warnings from the NPA to stop his alleged “counter-revolutionary” activities.
Sanchez alleged that Ferrazini gave logistical, financial and intelligence support to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Toril and even allowed the military to use their family’s farm as their base.
But Duterte said the Ferrazini’s farm had been used by rebels in the past and that the decision to allow the military use of the property was a family decision.
Sanchez in his February 25 statement, said that “as a matter of self-criticism, we apologize to the family of Mr. Vicente Ferrazini as well as to the people in general for this highly regrettable occurrence.”
He said they are “currently undertaking appropriate and necessary courses of action related to this grievous incident,” consistent with “the principles, laws and policies on revolutionary justice.”
They are prepared, he said, “to make an indemnification for this and are open to meet and talk with the Ferrazini family via their choice of neutral channels.”
The Ferrazini family could not be reached for comment.
“This self-critical and public admission of fault is a hallmark of the principled standpoint, viewpoint and method of the revolutionary movement. We stand for the truth and struggle for genuine justice; we admit errors and rectify mistakes and are steadfast and undaunted in accepting responsibility all in the interest of truth and justice,” Sanchez said, after which he concluded with a long paragraph on how this public admission of fault is “sharply in contrast” with the “terrible record of fraud and fabrication, deceitfulness and deception of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.”
The NPA also apologized, after having been criticized also for its earlier pronouncements, to the relatives of the 39 victims of the massacre in a chapel in Sitio Rano, Barangay Binaton in Digos City in 1989. Most of the victims were women and children. The relatives were indemnified after a few years. (MindaNews)