SENATOR Leila de Lima on Tuesday deplored the killing of Lumad Youth volunteer teacher Chad Booc and his companions dubbed as the ‘New Bataan 5’.

De Lima made the statement after the police released the autopsy report of the New Bataan 5.

She called for an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding their deaths.

“I couldn’t even bear to finish reading the news reports on the result of the autopsy done on Chad Booc who was killed with his companions, fellow Lumad school volunteer teacher Jurain Ngujo II, community health worker Elegyn Balonga and their drivers, Tirso Añar and Robert Aragon,” De Lima said.

“It painted a harrowing picture of what could have really happened in the last moments of their young lives. Brutal!  I can’t imagine how their loved ones must have felt,” she added.

Booc, Ngujo II, Balonga, Aragon and Añar, were killed in the alleged clash between soldiers and a group of New People’s Army rebels in Barangay Andap, New Bataan town in Davao de Oro on Feb. 24, 2022.

Based on the autopsy, forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun said that Booc had multiple gunshot wounds.

De Lima maintained that this incident should prompt Filipinos to continue resisting the culture of impunity under the present administration, which has emboldened more killings and abuses.

“Impunity murdered these young people who could have lived comfortable lives given their credentials but chose to serve the poor and marginalized,” she said.