TF Usig probes killing of religious leader, former rebel

The Task Force Usig is now probing the murder of a religious leader in Leyte and a former rebel in Bohol, which fall on the category of unexplained killings, the Department of Interior and Local Government said Saturday.

DILG Assistant Secretary Danilo Valero said that TF Usig has stepped into the killing of Felumino Catambis, a Pastor of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) who was killed in Leyte allegedly by members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army. Catambis had reportedly expressed a lack of interest in joining the underground communist movement.

Valero said that the task force is also investigating the killing of CPP-NPA member Ronald Sendrijas in Bohol who was killed by still unidentified suspects on Jan. 19. Sendrijas was suspected of being involved in two earlier murders.

The TF Usig, ad hoc body of the Philippine National Police (PNP) investigating unexplained killings in the country, earlier arrested Randall Echaniz, a member of the Central Committee of the National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) and secretary of its National Peasant Commission.

Echaniz was arrested on Jan. 28 in Bago City in Negros Occidental by military and police operatives on the strength of a warrant of arrest issued against him by the court for multiple murder.

TF chief Director Jefferson Soriano said Echaniz, who is now detained at the Bago City Police Station and scheduled for transfer to the provincial police office in Region 8, is facing 15 counts of murder in connection with the mass graves found in Hilongos, Leyte in 2007.

Soriano said Echaniz was also charged with violations of the law against the illegal possession of firearms and explosives and for kidnapping, added Soriano in a report to DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno.

In 2002, Echaniz was also involved in the assassinations of members of the Marxist-Leninist Party of the Philippines/Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan in Central Luzon.