Saturday, February 10, 2007
Militant shot dead in Misamis Oriental
By Danilo V. Adorador III
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- An octogenarian militant was shot dead in the town of Salay in Misamis Oriental Thursday evening.
Five armed men barged into the nipa hut of Dalmacio Gandinao and shot him to death while he was taking supper with his wife and his three grandchildren, said Henry Trugillo, Bayan Muna Northern Mindanao spokesperson.
The 84-year-old victim was the second militant to be murdered in Salay and in the entire Northern Mindanao region, after an assassin's bullet killed Ernesto Ladica in July last year.
Ladica's killing, which militants blamed on the military, remains unsolved. The Cagayan de Oro-based Fourth Infantry Division denied any participation in Ladica's killing.
Provincial Board Member Jimmy Caiña said in a radio interview that he heard about Gandinao's murder while he was attending a high school reunion near the area where the victim was assassinated.
"From what I've heard, Gandinao is living below where the school is located. I hope the investigators get to the bottom of this," Caiña said.
Gandinao was the chairperson of Misamis Oriental Farmers Association (Mofa), a farmers' group allied with the left-leaning Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP). Ladica, 43, was also a member of the same group.
After the killing, which occurred at around 7 p.m., the suspects fled aboard an unmarked van, said Trugillo, citing initial details reaching the Bayan Muna- Northern Mindanao office in Cagayan de Oro.
The human rights group Karapatan in Northern Mindanao condemned the act and branded it as a political killing.
Gandinao's murder came barely a week after the Melo Commission blamed the military, leftist groups, and private "goons" of politicians for a rash of politically motivated killings in the country.
"There are other killings by politicians and the military, politicians and their goons, and killings as part of a (family) vendetta," said Roman Catholic Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos, a member of the Commission.
"There are also some killings perpetrated by the leftists," he said, referring to the communist New People's Army (NPA) and their front groups.
"The thing that is bad in the country is that vigilante killings are tolerated," he said, in referring to extrajudicial murders. (Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Zamboanga. (February 10, 2007 issue)
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