Troops arrest two ambush suspects

COMBINED military and police operatives have arrested two people believed to be responsible for the ambush of a Subanen tribal leader that killed his 12-year-old son in Zamboanga del Sur, a military official said.

Captain Alberto Caber, spokesman of the Army's First Infantry Division, said the suspects were arrested by a joint team of troops from the 53rd Infantry Battalion and policemen around 8:20 a.m. Friday in Barangay Conacon, Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur.

Caber identified the suspects as Marlon Luao and Coloy Entag, both residents of Conacon village, Bayog municipality.

Confiscated from the suspects' possession were a caliber .45 pistol and a homemade shotgun with ammunition, Caber said.

Both were tagged as among those who allegedly ambushed Timuay Lucenio Manda, a Subanen tribal leader and an anti-mining advocate, and his son, Jordan, 12, last Tuesday at the junction of Matin-ao and Dagatan villages in the municipality of Bayog, Caber said.

Manda, who is also the village chief of Conacon, survived the ambush though slightly wounded while his son died on the spot.

Manda was driving his motorcycle with his son on their way home when they were ambushed by five gunmen.

Caber said charges of murder and frustrated murder were filed against the suspects, who are currently detained at the headquarters of Bayog police.

Manda is one of the four anti-mining advocates and one of the claimants of the ancestral domain for Indigenous Peoples in Bayog municipality.

He also leads an effort to strengthen and unify the efforts of the Subanens in the Central Zamboanga Peninsula to claim and protect their remaining contiguous ancestral domain.