Slain soldier’s widow files raps vs Abra gov

The widow of an Army corporal slain in a supposed ambush in Isabela last year filed a murder complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday against Abra Gov. Vicente Valera and the relieved commander of the Army’s 41st Infantry Battalion.

Elena Rosqueta, widow of Cpl. Antonio Rosqueta, tagged Valera and Lt. Col. Noel Mislang, former head of the 41st IB deployed in Abra, as the alleged masterminds of her husband’s killing.

Cpl. Eduardo Barcelona, who survived the killing, earlier had filed a frustrated murder complaint against Valera and Mislang and the alleged attackers, Mauro Durwin and Florencio Baharin, both civilian intelligence agents of the 41st IB when Mislang still headed it.

Mrs. Rosqueta filed the case a day after Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes, in an unprecedented move, ordered the entire 529-member Abra police contingent reassigned for failing to curb rampant killings blamed on illegal private armies which reportedly include police officers.

Reyes also said he would take over control of the Abra police from Valera and the province’s 27 mayors.

"There are so many private armies there, many killings and many crimes stay unsolved because almost everyone maintains a private army," he said.

All the policemen from Abra will be retrained and deployed elsewhere, said Senior Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil, Philippine National Police spokesman.

Officers suspected of crimes will be investigated and face charges and dismissal, he said. A special police contingent has been deployed to temporarily maintain security in Abra, he said.

The move came after a probe team of the National Police Commission, which Reyes chairs, concluded that policemen had been "willing to act as bodyguards for Abra politicians for a regular fee."

PNP chief Director General Arturo Lomibao named Superintendent Danilo Empedrad as Abra police director, replacing Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Ebardo.

Director Oscar Calderon, head of the PNP’s Chief Directorial Staff, said Abra’s entire police Mobile Group will be replaced by a contingent from Benguet and other parts of the Cordilleras.

"Because of their number, we could not replace them all at the same time. So what we plan to do is carry out the movement of police personnel in three phases," he said.

Prior to their supposed ambush on their way to a "birthday party" in Aurora, Isabela last Dec. 22, Rosqueta and Barcelona had filed a complaint against Mislang for allegedly ordering them to kill Lagayan, Abra Mayor Cecilia Luna and her family.

They quoted Mislang as saying that the "governor," allegedly referring to Valera, had been pressuring him to make good the slay plot against the Luna clan. — With Cecille Suerte Felipe