Luisita youth activist reported missing

HACIENDA LUISITA, Tarlac City — A youth leader of a militant organization inside this sprawling sugar estate has been reported missing since Tuesday.

Ronald Intal, 24, leader of the Samahan ng mga Kabataang Demokratiko sa Asyenda Luisita (SAKDAL), was abducted before noon last Monday by several armed men alleged to be military personnel.

Intal’s brother-in-law, Nestor Ramos, said the victim was helping him make charcoal in a hut near a tricycle terminal in Barangay Balete, one of the 10 villages covered by Hacienda Luisita, shortly after 11 a.m. when the armed men took him supposedly for a brief interrogation.

Intal, according to reports, was brought to Aqua Farm, a former fish-breeding station, also in Barangay Balete, where the 70th Infantry Battalion under the Army’s 7th Infantry Division headed by Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan is stationed.

However, when Intal’s family tried to request the military to release him, they denied having him in their custody.  

Rodel Galang, village chief of Balete, said he tried to interview other witnesses to shed light on Intal’s disappearance, but they gave conflicting accounts while some refused to talk at all.

Intal’s live-in partner, Estelita, said it was unlikely for the victim to be gone for days.

"Kaya ni-report po namin agad sa police yung pagkawala niya kasi hindi naman po siya umaaalis ng ganyang katagal (That’s why we immediately reported his disappearance to the police because he normally would not be away that long)," she said.

Col. Cesar Yano, chief of staff of the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command, told The STAR that they have not received any report from the barangay officials or the local police about the incident.

"We have not yet been informed about this incident by our men stationed inside the hacienda or by the police. We are still waiting for the reports. However, we are already looking into the case," he said.

Yano said he has called up Palparan to verify if the reports were true, but the latter also denied knowledge of the incident.

Yano said special operation teams of the 7th ID are deployed in the hacienda to rid it of communist influence. 

The military has identified the 10 villages inside the sugar estate owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino as part of the mass base of the New People’s Army (NPA), armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Marcial Pilar, 35, a member of the militant group Anakpawis, was accosted by the military last April 2 inside a videoke joint also in Barangay Balete.

Pilar was taken to a military detachment in the village where he was interrogated. He was released at 6 p.m. the same day.