Gunmen storm vigil in Abra sitio, massacre 4, wound 12

SAN JUAN, Abra – Eight-year-old Rogie Montorio, says his mother Glorina, swore he would never be a soldier because he hated bullets. He said he wanted to become a pastor, to give meaning to the lives of the hopeless.

That dream is gone now.

Last Oct. 4, armed assassins stormed the wake of Carmen Daganatu, a neighbor of the Montorios, and mercilessly peppered all those at the vigil with bullets from high-caliber automatic weapons. A grenade was even lobbed but fortunately, the pin remained intact although the ring was removed, thus preventing more victims.

As the smoke of gunfire lifted, the wailing of children and women replaced the staccato of gunbursts as shocked residents of remote Sitio Barbarsik in Barangay Ba-ug here in San Juan, rushed to the site of the carnage where four people lay dead, including Montorio, and 12 others were holding on to dear life.

Montorio had a gaping hole in his stomach; doctors later on said that part of his body was blown away by the blast from a shotgun. The three others who died on the spot, Erik Pacurza, Algie Pacurza and John Bersamin, all in their mid- and late 20s, bore fatal bullet wounds from shotgun and M-16 assault rifles.

"Takot na takot na po kami dito, uubusin po kaming lahat dito (We are extremely afraid, they will wipe all of us here)," cried Glorina, as she sat watching in disbelief the body of her son inside the coffin.

"Andami pa namang pangarap ng anak ko (My son had a lot of dreams)," said Glorina of her Grade 2 son, her one and only child, who consistently grabbed first honors since pre-school. "Ngayon, ano pa ang silbi ng buhay namin (What is now the meaning of our lives)?" she asked.

No police report

Neither the Abra provincial police office under Superintendent Arturo Quilop nor the San Juan municipal police office has released any report on the killings, further fueling bitterness among the residents of Barbarsik.

Amid farmlands at the foothills of the Abra mountain ranges, Sitio Barbarsik is a closely knit community of about 40 families. The sight of neighboring houses with lighted candles and lamps as they mourn their dead has added an eerie atmosphere to the remote sitio, accessible only by a one-way muddy road.

"Bagsak na nga kami sa kahirapan dito, gusto pa kaming pagpapatayin (We are wallowing in poverty here, and they still want to finish us off)," said Eduardo Daganatu, a master sergeant assigned with the 2nd Infantry Division based at Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal. He was on leave to attend the wake of his mother when the killings happened.

A few minutes before the assault at close to midnight, neighbors were enjoying a bingo game in the yard of the Daganatu residence. Nearby, the children were playing their own parlor games. Suddenly, from the dark and wet farmland beside the house emerged three men who quietly opened fire from a two-meter distance on the nearest victim.

Residents speculate the killers had no pre-intended target as they trained their guns on everyone, even running after the fleeing residents: men, women and children. Notable however, witnesses say, was how the killers put particular "finishing touches" on the two Pacurza victims, who were both subjected to additional shots even when they lay apparently dead.

Witnesses say only one of the killers wore a ski mask; the two others they possibly identified.

Residents mum

"Pero hindi po muna kami magsasalita ngayon kasi walang kasiguruhan na may tutulong nga sa amin (But we won’t say anything yet because we are unsure if anybody will help us)," Eduardo said.

"Media na lang po siguro ang maaari naming kapitan, kasi po baka hindi sila kayang bayaran ng mga gumawa nito (We can only count now on the media because they perhaps cannot be bought by the perpetrators)," Glorina added.

On the eve of the recent barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections, records show a certain Marlon Pacurza was also gunned down somewhere in this sitio. He was a candidate for barangay chairman.

When Pacurza was shot, residents say the two other Pacurzas, Algie and Erik, were with him but managed to escape unhurt. The trio were first cousins.

Pressed to comment if the massacre was politically motivated, residents kept mum.

"Ang hinihiling na lang po namin ay hustisya para sa mga batang namatay at nabiktima. Kung hindi po namin makakamtan ito, saan pa po kami susuling (What we want is justice for the children who died and were victimized. If we don’t get it whom do we run to)?" said couple Ricardo and Erene Pacurza, Erik’s parents.

Sitio Barbarsik is in an area where the communist New People’s Army is known to be operating. Recently, the NPA vowed to mete "revolutionary justice" to "warlordism and warlord families," naming some politicians as among those in its hit list for their "blood debts against the people."

According to military intelligence sources, the NPA is active in its recruitment efforts in the province, even tapping newly recruited cadres from Southern Luzon to help in its mass-base activities here.

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(The author is editor and publisher of Gazette, a Northern Luzon newspaper.)