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Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Youth leader beheaded, 3 others slain
By Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO -- Police recovered Tuesday the chopped bodies of three militant youth leaders and a motorcycle driver in a banana plantation along Crossing Blanco in the town of Compostela in Compostela Valley.
One of the victims, Marjorie Reynoso, 18, was allegedly beheaded. A worker of the banana plantation found the severed head of Reynoso, a chairperson of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK), near the grave where the other victims were buried.
Relatives and friends of the victims have accused the military intelligence group of being behind Friday's abduction of the three youth leaders and the driver of the motorcycle they were on.
Reynoso was on her way home with Jonathan Benaro, 16, an SK councilor, and Lito Doydoy, 27, a barangay community organizer, when they were abducted near the Hijo Plantation in Apokon, Davao del Norte, a few kilometers away from the PNP's 1101st outpost at around 3:30 p.m. on Friday.
Taken along with them was tricycle driver Ramon Regase.
Police said the bodies of the victims bore stab wounds and were in an advanced state of decomposition when found on Tuesday. Law enforcers believed they could have been killed as early as Saturday of Sunday.
Reynoso, Benaro and Doydoy were members of the militant youth group AnakBayan.
The militant group Karapatan, quoting witnesses, said the armed men who abducted the victims shot one of them in the leg before forcing them into the vehicles.
Reports said that a few hours before the abduction, a military intelligence officer was reported to be looking for Reynoso.
JP Ramada, AnakBayan Davao Chapter secretary general, said a certain Badoy, a motorcycle driver, identified the officer as Willie Javier.
But a military intelligence officer, who requested anonymity, said the military intelligence group (MIG) does not have an agent named Willie Javier.
Witnesses claimed Javier was behind the abduction of the youth leaders and the motorcycle driver.
Major Jose Faustino, commander of the regional military intelligence security unit, denied having a hand in the abduction of the four victims.
He said it was not the style of the military to abduct citizens and claimed the militant groups were lying when they accused military officers of being behind the abduction.
Ramada added that after the abduction, Reynoso's mother, Gloria, called up the victim in her mobile phone but an unidentified male person answered instead of her daughter. The man who answered the phone was laughing, he claimed.
Gloria allegedly went to the Police Regional Office in Camp Catitipan, Buhangin, Davao City on September 20 to seek help.
She later received a call from somebody who identified himself only as Benjie saying, "Kabalo ko naa ka sa regional (I know you are at the PNP regional office)."
Benjie allegedly told Gloria he knew most officers of the MIG. Sun.Star Davao
(September 24, 2003 issue)
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