LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The New People’s Army (NPA) is not suspect, at least for now, in the Christmas Day ambush of Paracelis town (Mountain Province) Mayor Ceasar Balacanao Rafael, according to Mountain Province police director Senior Superintendent Joseph Adnol.
Rafael, who had a colorful life as a politician in this eastern Mountain Province town, was mayor for several terms before the three-term rule was implemented. He was shot dead by still undetermined and unidentified suspects at around 2:30 p.m. in sitio Sinigpit, Barangay Butigue, Paracelis.
Adnol said the town executive had just visited his property located in Barangay Palitud and was on board his blue Toyota Hilux when ambushed by gunmen armed with M16 rifles on his way back to Poblacion Paracelis.
Police are of the opinion that the crime was well planned, considering the location of the ambush site.
Rafael sustained several fatal gunshot wounds.
Police have organized a task force headed by Superintendent William Viteno to dig deeper into the killing while police mobile group teams were sent immediately to Paracelis to track down the gunmen.
Investigators, Adnol said, are considering politics, personal grudge or revenge as possible motives but he was tight-lipped on why he is scratching out any NPA assassination angle in Mayor Rafael’s slaying.
“It remains confidential,” Adnol said, refusing also to talk about any other leads “so as not to bungle our operations.”
In the 1980s Mayor Rafael, who is portrayed by his detractors as a “warlord,” was taken by NPAs in Ifugao but was released after several days.
The Mountain Province-based Leonardo Pacsi Command of the NPA has not yet admitted to the ambush, which some experts surmised was part of their offensive to mark the anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines on Dec. 26.
Efforts to reach Cordillera People’s Democratic Front spokesman Simon “Ka Filiw” Naogsan remain futile.
Naogsan, a former government engineer in the Commission on Audit, is also from Paracelis.