More complainants vs Cagayan’s Mambas surface

MANILA, Philippines - More complainants alleging human rights violations committed by the Mamba clan in Cagayan have surfaced to demand justice, according to a provincial official. 

Lawyer Minehaha Liggayu, of the provincial legal office, said they have received new complaints against members of the Mamba family.

“We will file complaints in the proper forum. It is our goal to help these people who, despite knowledge of repercussions and reprisals, have been strong and fearless enough to come out and speak against those who did them wrong,” Liggayu told reporters in Manila the other day.

In separate complaints this week, Gil Durian and Felizardo Bangan accused the Mambas of disallowing businesses that competed directly with the family’s business interests.

“Their men came to us one day and said we could not sell gasoline because the Mambas were already operating a similar business… The next day, they came back and padlocked the store. That night they attempted to set the store on fire with my father sleeping inside it,” Durian alleged in his statement.

For his part, Bangan alleged that the Mambas twice prevented him from setting up a lotto outlet despite the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s approval. Outgoing Tuao mayor and losing gubernatorial candidate William Mamba and the town council supposedly had a policy “condemning gambling in all forms.”

“(But) in September 2012, two lotto outlets opened here in Tuao… both named to a trustee of Secretary Manuel Mamba,” Bangan alleged.

Secretary Mamba, head of the presidential legislative liaison office, is William’s brother. His wife, Mabel Villarica-Mamba, is a PCSO commissioner. Another brother, Francisco, is the mayor-elect of Tuao town.

Manuel and William, along with certain supporters, were named respondents in the alleged torture of four minors, including two brothers, in 2009.

In 2010, the Court of Appeals issued a writ of amparo in favor of the alleged torture victims. But the order has yet to be implemented, according to the victims’ families.