Army denies hand in Cagayan militants’ death

The Army denied yesterday any hand in the killing of two militant farmers in Cagayan province last Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Rodrigo Maclang, Army 5th Infantry Division chief based here, said Arthur Orpilla, 55, and Dionisio Battad, 62, who were reportedly affiliated with the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), have been helping the military expose the "evils of communism" in town meetings to help drive out New People’s Army (NPA) rebels from their community.

"We are in the process of winning the hearts and minds of the people, and we will never do anything to destroy the people’s trust and confidence in us or cause them to be estranged from us," he said

Maclang said on the day of the killing, Orpilla had spoken over radio station dzNC-Bombo Radyo-Cauayan to denounce the Kagimungan farmers group in Cagayan and its mother organization, the KMP, as fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA.

"In fact, he (Orpilla) had already been joining our SOT (special operations team) in denouncing the CPP-NPA," he said. "He was a military asset, so how could he have been killed by my men?"

The claims of militant groups that the Army is behind the killing were "mere propaganda," Maclang said.

The bullet riddled bodies of Orpilla and Battad, who also bore stab wounds, were found floating under the Magapit bridge in Lallo town Wednesday after disappearing Tuesday, hours after Orpilla went on air to disclose the KMP’s alleged communist links.

However, reports said that before they disappeared, Orpilla and Battad, who are reportedly also members of the left-leaning group Anakpawis, were threatened by soldiers from the Army’s 17th Infantry Battalion.

Carl Ala, KMP spokesman, said the soldiers had ordered Orpilla and Battad to report to the 17th IB headquarters immediately before they disappeared and their bodied found in the Cagayan River. – Charlie Lagasca, Cecille Suerte Felipe