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Sunday, January 29, 2006
Ex-commander of a rebel faction, assassinated
By Genalin D. Ducay and Erwin Ambo S. Delilan
MEMBERS of the New People's Army (NPA) attacked and killed a former commander of the breakaway Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Bongcayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) in Mabinay town, Negros Oriental Friday.
The rebels also gunned down two civilian volunteer officers who were only armed with a police stick and went to the place to check on the bursts of gunfire.
The assailants then commandeered a van just parked nearby, after the motorcycle they used in the operation failed to start.
Both the military and the police in the two Negros provinces looked at the incident as an act of vengeance.
Killed was Rogelio Mambato alias Ka Malvar. He was a former commander for the entire Negros operations of the RPA-ABB.
Colonel Norman Flores, 61st Infantry Brigade commander, said the incident took place at around 3:50 p.m. in Purok 7, Barangay Poblacion, Mabinay, Negros Oriental.
Flores identified barangay tanods as Rogelio Maylan and Joel Mahusay.
The suspects, he said, invaded the victim's house and directly shot him using a caliber .45 pistol.
Ka Malvar died on the spot after sustaining gunshot wounds in the left temple and at his back.
There were reportedly several lookouts before the operation was conducted.
The assassins' getaway vehicle failed to start prompting them to carnap a black Toyota Revo parked nearby and drove towards Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental.
Although police units in Negros Occidental were alerted of the incident, the checkpoints they set up in Barangay Camingawan, Kabankalan City failed to bag the attackers.
For his part, Provincial Police Director Senior Superintendent Charles Calima Jr. said the NPA and RPA are now engaged in a "secret war."
Calima cited the case of four RPA men who were also killed in Calatrava town in November 1 last year.
A week after the incident happened, the NPA admitted the killing through their internet site.
The Calatrava ambush came after the series of assassination of three top labor leaders of National Federation of Sugar Workers in Negros Occidental since April to June last year.
Those who were slain were Edwin Bargamento in Hacienda Maja, Barangay Punta
Mesa, and Manuel Batolina in Barangay Punta Salong, all in Manapla.
Mario Fernandez of Bago City was also assassinated at Barangay E. Lopez, Silay City on June 10, 2005.
According to the federation, the suspects in the liquidation case of their labor leaders were members of the RPA-ABB that performed their operation with a consent from the military.
Both the RPA-ABB and the Army denied the accusation.
After the Calatrava ambush, Perseus Geagoni, another top labor organizer of the same federation from Talisay City was reported missing until now.
Though the group and ally Karapatan-Negros repeatedly asserted its claim that the army were behind the abduction, it cannot be ascertained yet if Geagoni was really abducted.
Calima said the police could not definitely join the present "intramural of killings" between the two warring rebel factions.
Yet, he said, if each of the group has their evidences against their rival, then they could file cases against each other.
The Army's 303rd Infantry Brigade commander Jogy Fojas, on the other hand, refused to comment on matter.
(January 28, 2006 issue)
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