NPA denies hand in Guianga massacre
By ROGER M. BALANZA
The New People’s Army (NPA) has denied hand in the killing last week of a tribal leader in a remote sitio in Tugbok district in Davao City, blaming the strafing attack on the military and Pastor Apollo Quiboloy.
The Magtanggol Roque Command-Front 51 Operations Command of the New People’s Army in Southern Mindanao denied role in the killing of Datu Dominador Diarog in a press statement issued by spokesman Ricardo Fermiza posted yesterday at the Philippine Revolution Web Central.
Pastor Quiboloy in a broadcast on ACQ TV last week denied links to the killing and described media reports dragging his name as an attempt to discredit his church.
“The NPA strongly condemns this hideous crime as a despicable attack on indigenous peoples who resist all attempts to occupy and grab their diminishing ancestral lands,†said Fermiza, who urged Mayor Rodrigo Duterte “to conduct a serious and impartial probe and leave no stone unturned without fear or favor to anyone.†Pastor Quiboloy is widely known as a close friend and spiritual adviser of the mayor.
The rebel denial came as the NPA loomed as primary suspect in the killing of Diarog, whose two minor children were also injured in the 10:00 p.m. strafing attack on his house in Sitio Kahusayan, Manuel Guianga.
The military initially said NPAs could be behind the attack; police said it is pursuing the angle Diarog was killed for refusing to sell his 2-ha farmland to a barangay official close to Pastor Quiboloy.
Police investigators found 17 M14 empty shells outside of the house of the tribal leader of the Guiangan-Clata tribe, a few kilometers away from the Prayer Mountain in Tamayong of Pastor Quiboloy’s Kingdom of Jesus Christ The Name Above Every Name.
73rd Infantry Battalion commanding officer Lt. Col. Alexander Ambal earlier said Diarog may have been killed by the NPAs for assisting military in the counter-insurgency campaign. Ambal said Diarog, a former militiaman, is one of the leaders of the Supreme Tribal Council for Peace and Development (STCPD), a military-backed tribal organization actively involved in the anti-insurgency campaign.
Chief Inspector Ireneo Dalogdog, chief of the Tugbok Police precinct, said however police probers are looking at links of Tamayong barangay captain Greg Canada, who had been offering to buy the farmland of Diarog, who refused to sell. Dalogdog also said Diarog was object of harassment before the killing by armed groups who burned his farmhouse thrice. He said relatives of the tribal leader told of Canada offering to buy the farm at P50,000. Canada denied he made the offer in radio interviews last week. The Diarog farm is sandwiched between the Prayer Mountain and a forested area bought by Pastor Quiboloy.
In the statement, Fermiza said a probe by the rebel movement showed Ambal conniving with Pastor Quiboloy in the grabbing lands from the tribal people as confirmed in initial investigation by police and relatives of the tribal leader.
“The culprits work closely with the 73rd Infantry Battalion / Task Force Davao of the AFP at the behest of Apollo Quiboloy. Lt. Col. Alexander Ambal’s forces and the TFD openly colluded with Apollo Quiboloy’s private interests in the area by giving protection by way of organizing, training and arming a platoon of Special Civilian Auxiliary Army (SCAA),†said Fermiza, who identified the assailants as belonging to the SCAA and the Black Fighter paramilitary group stationed in a detachment located near Pastor Quiboloy’s Prayer Mountain.
“The family of the slain tribal leader as well as the people of Barangays Guianga and Tamayong are correct in concluding that land grabbing lies at the center of this aggression. The pertinent facts and circumstances are very glaring that even the PNP-Tugbok has given primacy to the land grabbing motive,†said Fermiza.
Earlier, Ambal also said military was hunting down a rebel band under Rachel Shirley Ediza alias Jasmin and Roberto Rosete alias Bobby, who were behind the attack that also wounded Emily, the tribal leader’s wife.
Asked to comment on Dalogdog suspicion land grabbing was the motive, Ambal said the military is looking at the killing as insurgency-related given Diarog’s background. But Ambal said the military would be willing to assist police in investigating the criminal angle.
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