Saturday, August 23, 2008 Sudlon caves used as graves By Mia E. Abellana Sun.Star Staff Reporter
SKELETONS of two bodies were found in a deep cave in the mountain village of Sudlon I, Cebu City which is believed to be a mass grave of former communist rebels who were allegedly executed by their members.
A team from the Central Command and the Cebu City Mobile Group (CCMG), formerly the Security and Service Group, proceeded to Sitio Morga, Barangay Sudlon I
yesterday morning to check the report.
Senior Insp. Sarah Jane Recla said they received the information more than a month ago but she wanted it verified before they launched an operation.
Yesterday morning, the skeletons of two bodies were recovered in the caves of Pangasag and Satohan.
Authorities believe there are more.
Lt. Col. Oscar Lasangue of the 3rd Civil Relations Group said they will return to the cave with better equipment to locate the rest of the bodies.
It was Regner Bellita, a resident of Sudlon I, who discovered the skeletons.
Bellita scours caves in search of bird’s nests, which he sells to make a living.
He later informed his neighbors and barangay officials about the presence of the skeletons.
Jesusima Ababon, 33, said her husband Evaresto and their family have been looking for their elder brother Nilo since the 1980s.
There were reports that Nilo was abducted and then killed by the New People’s Army (NPA).
Jesusima said Nilo was not a member of the NPA but was mistaken for another NPA member who had the same name.
Residents of Sudlon I heard reports that the NPA would liquidate their own members suspected of leaving the organization and giving tips to the military.
Barangay Councilor Nicomedes Panaginip said there were reports that more than 30 were killed or dumped in the cave.
He said that since he was young, his neighbors would always say that if anyone went missing, they were probably brought to the cave.
Residents have begun referring to the cave as an “alkansiya” (coin bank).
“Kuyawan man sab mi kay basin kami sab unya ang isud diha (We’ve always been afraid that we would also be dumped there),” he explained, when asked why no one thought of reporting the matter.
They also feared that there were NPA members or supporters in the neighborhood and would come for them if they reported it to the police.
The police and the military assured, though, the NPA did not have influence in Sudlon I or in Cebu City.
At the Satohan cave, they found the skeleton of one body, a rotten T-shirt marked Punkin Popim and a pair of white underwear. At the bigger Pangasag cave, a skeleton of a bigger person was found with a pair of red underwear, a face towel and a pair of blue shorts. A skeleton of a third body was reportedly nearby, but they couldn’t get to it because of the rocky terrain of the cave.
Lasangue also thanked the active members of the barangay who reported the matter to the police and to the military.
He urged others who know of other NPA mass graves to inform the authorities so that they will be given proper burial.
As police proceeded to the caves, they chanced upon an area where marijuana leaves were planted.
Supt. Eliseo Castronuevo Jr., chief of the CCMG, said they managed to uproot some 148 stalks at noon yesterday.
No one was arrested. Panaginip explained that no one owned the lot where the plants were found and that some residents were probably trying to make money out of the plants.
He said that he did not know about the plants and if they knew these were planted there, they would have uprooted them.
