THE PHILIPPINES. DEATH SENTENCE ON MAMBURAO 6 `BIASED,’ SAYS FARMER'S WIFE

the decision by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court against a group of farmers known as the “Mamburao 6”, who were convicted, together with a former congressman, of killing the two sons of a local landlord in Mamburao, the Philippines, was “biased,” said the wife of one of the convicted.
Manolito Matricio, Eduardo Hermoso, Mario Tobias, Josue Ungsod, Ruel Bautista, and Ruben Balaguer – who had been charged in 1998 of killing Michael and Paul Quintos, sons of Mamburao landlord Ricardo Quintos – were found guilty and meted out the death penalty on March 1, even though the Lucio de Guzman Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) had earlier admitted to the killing.
“We cannot accept the decision,” said Cora Matricio, wife of Manolito Matricio, in an interview with Bulatlat. “We didn’t expect them to be sentenced to death because when you really look at it, you can’t find any real evidence against them.”
In an earlier interview with Bulatlat, lawyer Edre Olalia, counsel for three of the convicted including Matricio, said the farmers – who were locked in a land dispute against Quintos – ended up as “sacrificial lambs” in a battle between the Quintoses and Villarosa.
“They could not have been the killers of the Quintos brothers,” Olalia added. “Aside from the NPA’s public admission of the killing, there are also testimonies pointing to the perpetrators as all young men. All of the convicts are obviously middle-aged.”