By CONG B. CORRALES, Associate Editor THE 15-year old survivor in the Aug. 18 killings in Sitio Mando, Barangay Mendis, Pangantucan, Bukidnon, could hardly finish his sentences as he struggled to narrate the events that fateful Tuesday afternoon during a news conference here yesterday. The survivor’s father, Herminio Samia, 70, his brothers Joebert, 20 and Emir, 19, relatives Norman, 13, and Elmer, 17, were killed in what the military and police maintained was a “legitimate encounter” between government and New People’s Army (NPA) forces. Flanked by his relatives and Bishop Christopher Ablon, spokesperson of the Alliance for Advancement of People’s Rights in Northern Mindanao (Karapatan-NMR), the teenager (minor’s name withheld) said he witnessed soldiers shoot his father, siblings and relatives one by one. He said he begged soldiers to take them in as prisoners instead of summarily executing them. In its Fact Finding Mission Report, Karapatan stated: “The residents wanted to go to the site immediately hoping they could still save him (Herminio) and the others but [the survivor] stopped them saying that the military men no longer differentiated civilians and would shoot anyone.” The survivor’s father, who was known as Datu Intabol, was the second highest ranking chieftain in their tribal community.  The Army vehemently denied what human rights advocates called as a “massacre” during a press conference on Wednesday, citing the results of a paraffin test done on each of the bodies by Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco). Soco regional assistant director Supt. April Madrozo told media that the dead men and teenagers tested positive for nitrate, which could mean they fired guns prior to their deaths. Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound composed of potassium, nitrogen, and oxygen. It is widely used as a gun powder, artillery primers, hand-grenade fuses, and in fireworks. Also known as saltpeter or niter, the chemical compound is also used in fertilizers. Bishop Ablon said the fatalities tested positive for nitrate because the dead indigenes worked as farmers. “Why did the military recover only one AK-47 rifle in the area where the five indigenes were killed in a supposed ‘legitimate encounter’?” Karapatan asked. Had it been a legitimate encounter as the military had claimed, each of the five indigenes would have been clutching their rifles when they died, Karapatan pointed out. The commander of the 1st Special Battalion Lt. Col. Nasser Lidasan explained to the media in a press conference on Wednesday that the other Maoist guerrillas took the firearms of their fallen comrades when they fled the area. In a statement, NPA-North Central Regional Command spokesman Allan Juanito confirmed that they left one AK-47 rifle after their encounter with the Special Forces that day. Juanito, however, pointed out that the encounter happened some four kilometers from the community of the Samias, and they were not rebels.