DU30’S EJK: NDFP’s Echanis tortured to death, says CHR

Erlinda Echanis grieves over the remains of her husband, NDFP peace consultant Randall “Ka Randy” Echanis at La Funenaria Paz in Quezon City. Echanis was found dead  in his rented home in Novaliches, Quezon City last August 10, 2020. RICHARD A. REYES / INQUIRER

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MANILA, Philippines — Sustaining 15 wounds, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Randall “Randy” Echanis was made to suffer before he was eventually killed by his assailants, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) revealed Friday.

In an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel, CHR Commissioner Leah Armamento answered in the affirmative when asked if Echanis, also the national chairperson of the Anakpawis party-list, was tortured based on his autopsy.

She said CHR investigators participated in the autopsy conducted on Echanis’ body as requested by his family.

“We saw that Randall Echanis suffered 15 wounds. He has two wounds that were like slicing, a kind of wound that is incised. Here on the side, he was like cut, and then there was also injury on his head by a blunt object,” she said.

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On his back, there were also 12 incised wounds that did not penetrate the lungs. “So it’s like superficial. It’s up to the muscular area, to cause pain,” said Armamento.

“In both eyes, he had black eyes, and the one that caused his death is the stabbing of the so-called what they call in the autopsy report as the spike, or like a knitting needle which they thrust from one side of his back to the other side. So from the left to the right, hitting the aorta, through and through but it did not exit, because it has a hook,” she further said.

“So you can see that the killing is not merely just to kill him but to make him suffer before he was eventually killed.”

Echanis, along with his neighbor Louie Tagapia were found lifeless in an apartment in Novaliches, Quezon City at 1:35 a.m. on August 10.

According to Armamento, CHR investigators were able to speak with a witness who lives in the same apartment.

She said the witness heard what sounded like a  scuffle on the second floor and saw five people fleeing the crime scene, prompting him and his father to go upstairs where they discovered the bodies of Echanis and Tagapia.

Armamento said the CHR is not yet certain of the angle behind the killing of the two victims.

“We are not saying it is from the left or right, but the CHR is just conducting an investigation and proceeds where the evidence leads us,” she said.

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