The NPA and the Pulupandan ambush

One does not take lightly a claim by the New People’s Army (NPA) that the insurgents were behind the ambush that killed  two aides of Mayor Magdaleno Peña and Councilor Jerany Suatengco in Pulupandan town last Wednesday.

Peña identified the leader of the ambush as a former leader of the NPA in Western Visayas. But he expressed surprise on why the communist mainstream group had targeted him when he had not done anything wrong against them.

“I saw Samson (Mondia) inside the car with my ambushers,” he said in an interview with the Negros Bulletin Sunday.

In a separate interview by the Sun STAR (Bacolod), Peña also said he already told NBI Bacolod chief Mamerto Cortez that “Sammy was inside the blue Toyota Revo used as get-away car by five or six gunmen after the ambush.”

Peña claimed that his statement was also corroborated by Jerany Suatengco, the councilor who was wounded in the ambush.

He expects the NBI to file two counts of murder and frustrated murder and attempted murder against Mondia and the other suspects.

But the NBI Bacolod chief said all the information given  by Peña and Suatengco will be examined thoroughly.

These will be compared with the findings of the police investigators under PNP provincial chief Director Rosendo Franco.

“Their statement-affidavits will remain subject for confirmation and validation while we are gathering other details to substantiate their claims from several witnesses we can have while the investigation process continues,” Cortez stressed.

Detailed NPA statement, but . . .

The Boy Gatmaitan Command of the NPA yesterday claimed responsibility for the May 30 ambush, according to a statement by Bayani Obrero, the group’s spokesperson.

“The NPA will continue until revolutionary justice is served on Atty. Magdaleno Peña. If not now, there is always a next time,” the statement said.

Peña, however, told local mediamen that the statement was “hogwash.”

He attributed  the statement to Mondia and his “leftist family” purportedly to mislead the investigation.

“That makes Mondia a deputy of the NPA,” he added.

Mondia, however, denied Peña’s claim, saying that he has nothing to do with the statement. “My family has no connection with the leftists,” he said.

Peña suffered only minor injuries in the ambush at Zone 4 of Pulupandan last May 30 but his driver and his bodyguard died while and three others were injured, including Councilor Jerany Suatengco.

Negrenses were agog over the detailed recitation of the alleged crimes by Peña as contained in the Obrero statement, copies of which were made available to local media.

“A NPA team tried to serve a standing order of meting revolutionary justice against Atty. Maga Peña who has committed the grave crimes against the people since the 80s,” Obrero stated.

The crimes included alleged land grabbing of peasant lands in Barangay Inolingan, Moises Padilla. This was where Peña  earlier said he intends to develop for relocating the “squatters.”

“My response to this so-called NPA statement is they should get their facts right. Who did I displace – the poor farmers or the rich loan sharks?” asked Peña.

He pointed out that the people he displaced where the financiers to whom the beneficiaries had mortgaged their land and who could have ended up owners of the property because they were charging exorbitant interest rates.

Peña also belied the charge that he was terrorizing the masses in Pulupandan using armed goons to evict them from their homes and filing false charges against them

Peña also denied the claim of grave threats, mandhandling, imprisonment and murder of farm workers in Hacienda Montilla in Pulupandan in 1980, saying that he was then staying in Manila. He said his brother was the one working at the farm then.

Obrero also claimed that Peña hired the services of “Bebo” Miravilla and Ernesto Detia in several crimes. Peña denied that both were mercenaries.

The most serious charge was that Peña allegedly masterminded the murder of the late Mayor Kenny Fernandez and Lt. Romeo Sonario and several others.

Peña denied knowing Sonario and maintained that he has no reason to have Fernandez killed because he was not running then for mayor.

Peña also was accused by Obrero of using money and influence and using authorities to even imprison people like “retired Gen. Raymundo Jarque and other military and police officials, including members of the opposition.”

(Incidentally, Jarque later joined the National Democratic Front (NDF) out of frustration over his alleged failure to secure justice from the government).

Obrero also tagged Peña’s relationship with fifth district Rep. Ignacio Arroyo, saying that his closeness to the Arroyos and Malacañang, are the reasons why he now lords over Pulupandan with his goons.”

Mrs. Arroyo promptly admitted that Peña is his friend but hastily added that so were the Mondias; a Mondia was the Kampi mayoralty candidate in Pulupandan. Arroyo is the regional KAMPI chair for Western Visayas.

There were a lot more things said in the Obrero statement released to the media. But it had served only to stoke a public debate between the Boy Gatmaitan Command and Peña on the issues against the mayor-elect and the NPA (if the statement really was that of the CCP-NPA) and not (as Peña claimed) just the handiwork of Mondia.”

In the next few days and weeks. Negrenses will have their eyes focused on what will follow the present word war and the recitation of the crimes allegedly committed by Peña.

But one thing sure is, this dispute will await if the NBI and the PNP will file the charges against Mondia as petitioned by Atty. Peña. In short, the Pulupandan crisis will continue for sometime until the investigation determines who exactly should be blamed for the ambush of Peña and company last May 30.

ADDENDA. Meanwhile, Negrenses seem to have overlooked the other developments on the crime front as the brutal killing of an “ukay-ukay” couple-merchant in Fabrica, Sagay City, allegedly by their own household helper from La Castellana town. The couple were Basilio Policios, 76, an amputee, and his wife, Loreta, 67. Superintendent William Senoron, Sagay police chief, said an ax was still embedded in the head of Policios when the bodies were discovered inside their house. Both had hack wounds on their heads. Bernie Togle, the helper, was tagged by the police as prime suspect. He was nowhere to be found. There was also suspicion that the couple were also engaged in a treasure hunt. In Dumaguete City, police  director Dionardo Carlos, acting police chief, expressed alarm over the sudden increase of holdup incidents in the Negros Oriental capital city. He said there were already four cases after the May 14 elections. The perpetrators were reportedly motorcycle riding suspects armed with firearms. Their usual victims were students enrolling this school year. In a separate incident, combined police and army operatives swooped down a suspected marijuana plantations in Tayasan Barangay Saturday and arrested four persons for allegedly planting the growing 47 marijuana plants and seedlings in Barangay Dalaupon. This is a remote barangay of Tayasan of Negros Oriental. It is 20 kilometers from the town proper. The composite team arrested Renegi de la Zerna, Roline Espaguerra, Romnick Callao, and Romualdo Gardo. That, according to the story of Juancho Gallarde of the Visayan Daily STAR’s Dumaguete Bureau.