Monday, May 12, 2008 PNP orders arrest vs murder suspect of CPP-NPA supporter
THE Philippine National Police (PNP) is now hunting down the suspect in the killing of a Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) supporter in Western Samar.
An ad hoc body investigating cases of unexplained killings said over the weekend that a warrant of arrest has already been issued by the trial court in Western Samar against the alleged killers of Norberto Cabigayan.
The killer was identified as a CPP-NPA supporter and collector of "revolutionary taxes" for the communist underground.
"Revolutionary taxation" is a euphemism for the extortion activities of the CPP-NPA victimizing businessmen and landowners in so-called guerrilla fronts.
A warrant of arrest has been issued by Presiding Judge Yolanda Dagandan last March 28 against Romeo Paday for the killing of Cabigayan.
In the case of Norman Bocar, a lawyer and Bayan Muna regional coordinator for Eastern Samar, a case for murder was already filed before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Borongan City against suspects Elejandro Aragon Jr. and one still unidentified person for his killing.
Task Force Usig has fanned out to various investigating agencies 55 unsolved cases of unexplained killings as part of its efforts to speed up the resolution of these suits involving the murders of political activists and journalists.
Citing a report submitted to Secretary Ronaldo Puno of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) by Task Force Usig, Assistant Secretary for the Interior Danilo Valero said of these 55 unsolved cases, 50 involved the killings of political activists while five were cases of slain media persons.
Valero said as of March this year, Task Force Usig has referred four of these unsolved cases to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and eight to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the PNP.
Referring to the Usig report, Valero said 39 unsolved killings of political activists and four involving media persons are under investigation by the Regional Investigation and Detective Management (RIDM).
In his report to the DILG, Police Director Jefferson Soriano, who heads both Task Force Usig and the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM), said the task force has acted decisively on more than half of 141 verified incidents of unexplained killings.
Of the total number of 141 cases verified, 113 involved killings of political activists and 28 work-related killings of journalists, Soriano bared.
As of March this year, out of the 113 cases involving political activists, 60 (53 percent) were filed, 4 (3.5 percent) are under investigation, 48 (42.5 percent) are considered cold cases as there had been no development or progress on the investigation for more than a year, and one case (one percent) was dropped and closed.
Of the 60 cases, he said 35 were filed in court, in which one case was settled amicably, 27 are on trial and seven were dismissed. A total of 12 cases are pending at the prosecutor's office and 13 were provisionally dismissed.
In the cases of slain media practitioners, out of the 28 work-related cases, 23 were filed in court; four were considered cold cases as there had been no development or progress in the investigation for more than a year and one remains under investigation, Soriano added. (Press release)
