Soldiers linked to Igorot farmer’s slay face arrest

BONTOC, Mt. Province — A young Army lieutenant and his men are facing arrest after the Regional Trial Court judge here issued a warrant for them in connection with last year’s killing of an Igorot farmer in Sadanga town.

Judge Artemio Marrero ordered the arrest of Lt. Eduardo Sia-ed and his men in the Army’s 54th Infantry Battalion stationed in Sadanga, after provincial prosecutor William Ayochok filed murder charges against them for the death of one Rolando Chadya-as on Aug. 5 last year.

The military earlier had claimed that Chadya-as was a New People’s Army (NPA) guerrilla.

In a statement last year, Lt. Col. Preme Monta, spokesman of the Northern Luzon Command, said Chadya-as was killed by Sia-ed and his men in an encounter with NPA rebels in Barangay Belwang, Sadanga town.

According to the military, Chadya-as was with a squad of NPA rebels who were the first to fire at the government troopers.

Human rights and church groups based in Mt. Province, however, concluded after a fact-finding mission that Chadya-as, a father of eight children, was not a rebel and that he was checking his crops being ravaged by wild boars when he was slain.

Residents of Barangay Belwang also denied that there was an armed encounter in their village where Chadya-as was reportedly killed.

The provincial board’s committee on human rights took cognizance of the case and also had it investigated.

Monta said Sia-ed and his men will be assisted by the Armed Forces’ Judge Advocate General’s Office.

Dinteg, a Baguio-based human rights group, hailed the court’s order.