BY ROMY TERUELBohol Sunday Post
columnistThe death of Mayong Auxilio remains to be surrounded by mystery notwithstanding the positive identification of the suspect. Investigators and fact-finding teams continue to be perplexed by the circumstances surrounding the commission of the crime.
Hilario "Larry" Diola was identified by at least two witnesses. But the motive is difficult to establish given the many information that are coming in to the investigation by Bayan Muna, the Philippine National Police and the Fact Finding Team of the Provincial Peace and Order Council.
Bayan Muna refuses the angle of personal grudge that PNP is advancing as the motive of the crime. To them there can be no personal grudges because Larry and Mayong were good friends and did not have disagreement before the fatal shooting. Mayong they claimed even slept at Larry's house. They believe Mayong was killed because he has become "Enemy of the State" for what he was doing to organize the farmers and fisher folks for genuine agrarian reform.
All the more reason, Bayan Muna said, that Mayong was killed for what he was espousing because his killer was a member of the Alimaong, an anti-communist group.
On the part of the PNP, tasked to enforce the laws and apprehend the violators and bring them to the bar of justice, the filing of the case would consider the case as solved. And in fact they have already filed the corresponding case in court. Of course the mere filing of the case in court against the suspect is not a solution to the crime in the eyes of the public. PNPy must apprehend the suspect and get him convicted by the court. That indeed could take time.
The PPOC fact-finding team, however, is still pursuing the angle of personal grudge, even going further to the possible love angle because of the statements of Lilibeth, Larry's wife. Lilibeth claimed that she and Evelyn were not in good terms because she would not allow her husband to go to the videoke bar where Evelyn is working. She is a woman who is "hingamigahon sa mga kalalakin-an," she said in her sworn statement. She claimed Mayong and Evelyn were sweethearts.
The PPOC Fact-Finding Team as an initiative of the local government will not only gather information to establish the facts of the case. It will go deeper to find the causes because its task is not only to help solve the crime but to help look for measures to prevent the commission of the same in the future. Thus it must look even at the findings of the other teams so that the public can be given the objective facts.
Thus when the Bayan Muna claimed that Larry is an asset of the 15th IB, or that he is a member of Alimaong which they claim to be an anti-communist group, the PPOC team must also find out whether these are true. So far the facts gathered by the PPOC team have not established Larry being an asset of the 15thIB.
His membership in the Alimaong does not make him an automatic asset. Besides Alimaong's being an anti-communist group has not also been established. There are literatures pointing to it helping the government in the peace and order campaign but this does not make them anti-communist. In fact the PPOC team found out that the Cultural Chieftain and Military Affair of Alimaong, Datu Mangayawtaw (Antonio Tabada) is the same Tony described by Lilibeth as the friend of Mayong who used to join Larry in drinking session at their house in Bien Unido.
If Alimaong is an anti-communist group why would Mayong befriend its officer and members?
Investigation is a painstaking job. But it is a challenge that the PPOC fact-finding team will continue to do because it has the task to help bring out the truth.
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