NDF owns up to Bohol gov’s ambush

CEBU — The National Democratic Front (NDF) has admitted being responsible for last Friday’s ambush on Bohol Gov. Erico Aumentado.

Rio de la Montaña, NDF spokesman for Central Visayas, said the ambush was meant to remind the governor that the "provisional revolutionary government" does not spare "counter-revolutionary bureaucrats" like him.

The Bohol governor earlier declined to comment on death threats he had been receiving, but after the ambush he said that he had actually received an NDF letter warning him about his support for the military.

De la Montaña said Aumentado has become a "willing partner" of the Armed Forces in its counter-revolutionary campaign.

He described Bohol as the most militarized province in the country as it hosts nearly 2,000 members of the Army, Special Forces, Scout Rangers, regional and provincial mobile groups and paramilitary units.

He blamed the "militarization" for what he alleged to be the steady rise of military abuses against Bohol farmers.

The NDF accused Aumentado of delaying the compensation of farmers whose houses were leveled with the completion of the Malinao Dam in Pilar town.

It also accused the governor of having allegedly misused funds for foreign-assisted projects like the Leyte-Bohol interconnection and Bohol irrigation projects and the Bohol Circumferential Road.

Two men fired at Aumentado’s Pajero at about 12:30 p.m. last Friday barely 20 meters from the provincial capitol and 100 meters from the Tagbilaran police headquarters.

Aumentado, his cousin Rufino Aumen—tado, driver Tomas Catulos and police escorts SPO4 Boy Caga and PO3 Rudy Manamtan were unhurt. — Freeman News Service