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Monday, October 31, 2005
Army brigade out to get communist leader
By Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO CITY -- The Army has one brigade tasked to go after communist rebel leader Leoncio Pitao, alias Ka Parago. The brigade believes it would capture the elusive leader, and soon.
Army 73rd IB executive officer Major Orlando Suarez said the manhunt order against Parago would continue despite the lapse of the three-month deadline given by the Army for his fall.
According to Suarez, the rebel leader is now in the area of the 401st Brigade.
Colonel Arthur Tabaquero, chief of the Army 401st Brigade, said they are still hunting down Parago and his estimated 80 fully-armed followers in the hinterlands of the Davao-Bukidnon-Agusan boundaries.
Tabaquero admitted they are having difficulty getting Parago.
"Kasi in and out lang siya sa area eh. Pag may operation kami umaalis siya at bumabalik lang 'pag wala na mga sundalo namin sa area," Tabaquero said. (When we conduct our operation, he leaves and comes back when soldiers leave the area.)
Report has it that Parago's health is failing.
Saurez, however, said that despite his health condition, Parago remains ruthless as ever.
"Even with failing health, he can order the killing of people. That's how brutal Parago is," Suarez said.
Just last week, Parago was accused of killing one Modaire Ambong in Sitio New Camotes, Paquibato last October 23.
In a press conference at the Task Force Davao headquarters Thursday, Ambong's wife, Solita, narrated how two unidentified men invited her and her husband Saturday afternoon for a walk.
"They told us to go with them. We did not know them but they forced us to go with them," Solita recalled.
Solita said after more than four hours of walk, they stopped and rested for the night.
The following day, she was ordered by a rebel, who identified himself as Ka Parago, to leave and go home.
Solita said she did as she was told leaving her still alive husband with the rebels.
In the afternoon of that same day, she was informed that her husband was found at Sitio New Camotes already dead.
In the past week, amid claims by government military that Parago is most likely incapacitated either because he was hit in one of the operations against him or sick, Parago came out in a video interview released by the rebels lambasting the government for its anti-people policies. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
(October 31, 2005 issue)
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