Injured	Killed
0	5

Date: 20 June 2013
Source: InterAksyon 5

ESPERANZA, Agusan del Sur – Rebels from the New People’s Army executed a leader of the indigenous Higa-onon tribe and four others in the town of Esperanza in Agusan del Sur Tuesday morning, police said. However, a spokesman of the National Democratic Front denied this in an interview with a Butuan City radio station Wednesday evening, and said there was an encounter. 

Police Senior Inspector Nelven Tuan Rufon, municipal police chief of Esperanza town, said eyewitness accounts indicate that an estimated 100 NPA guerillas stormed two villages one after the other.

“At around 10:00 in the morning, the NPAs arrived in Sitio Kamarangan, Purok 7 Barangay Hawilian and took IP (indigenous people) leader Crispolo Linunsag also known as Datu Mangkuryente and Anghel Cozan also known as Ingko Boknit, who were caretakers of the rubber plantation owned by Mayor Leonida Manpatilan. Both of the men were then executed with their arms tied behind their back,” said Rufon.

The municipal police chief then added the rebel group then proceeded to Purok 5, Barangay Milagros of the said town and killed three more.

“They (NPA) then killed Felipe Hadraque, a former member of the 29th Infantry Battalion and a caretaker of the Shannaline wood company. Also killed in Barangay Milagros were Jun Tria and Reme Politan who happened to be near the incident area when the NPAs arrived,” the police chief said.

The police report also revealed that the guerillas also burned down four bulldozers, three payloaders, and a road grader that was owned by the Shannaline Company.

Mayor Manpatilan expressed shocked upon hearing about the incident.

“This is the first time after more than 20 years that such an incident happened here in our town. I was really saddened by the incident and we are now extending all support toward the grieving families,” said Manpatilan.

However, Mayor Manpatilan denied that the two killed in Barangay Hawilian were workers in his family’s rubber plantation.

“Those two were actually just living within the plantation area and near where the heavy equipment were parked,” she said.

In a phone interview, a relative of one of the Higaonon victims said that when the rebels, they were looking for certain people.

“The NPA guerillas were looking for several people and one of them was Datu Tawan-tawan, who was in Cabadbaran City that day. So, in his stead, they took his brother, Datu Mangkuryente. Datu Tawan-tawan was a member of the hard-line anti-communist group known as the Wild Dogs, which was headed by the late Lavi Manpatilan or Datu Mansaulog back in the 1980s,” said the relative who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.

“The town of Esperanza was actually the only town in Agusan del Sur since the late 1980s that has not been penetrated by the NPA until the time Mayor Deo Manpatilan. Unfortunately after Deo Manpatilan’s death last year, the grip on the community’s security has loosened,” he added.

Col. Gregory Cayetano, commanding officer of the 401st Infantry Brigade who had a command conference with the town council after the incident, said the rebels may have launched the attack for two reasons: to show that the NPA is now present in the town, and to punish Shannaline wood company for refusing to give extortion money.

“This town has held its ground for several years in its hard-line stand against communism, but weakened since the death of its leader Deo Manpatilan,” said Cayetano.

Lt. Col. Jose Leonard Gille, 26th Infantry Battalion commander, said the rebels used three vehicles from Butuan City: one closed van and two forwarder trucks.

“They deceived the owners of the vehicles, saying they will rent them to transport agricultural products in Barangay Tungao, but the drivers were asked to get out of the vehicles when they reached the town of Las Neives. The bulk of the armed group was then picked up between the border of Agusan del Sur and Agusan del Norte,” said Gille.

Gille suggested that the rebel group was a combined force of Guerilla Front 88 and 4A. 

For the NDF, Jorge Madlos, also known as Ka Oris, spokesman of the NDF-Mindanao Chapter, denied the reports of a cold-blooded execution, saying there was a legitimate encounter and exchange of gunfire between the NPA forces and those who died. He suggested that the fatalities were members of Wild Dogs.

But aside from eyewitness accounts, police also had photographs of the victims with their hands tied behind their back.