2 Zambo ambush suspects fall

MANILA, Philippines – Security forces have arrested the suspects in last week’s ambush of an anti-mining activist and his son in Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur. 

Capt. Alberto Caber, spokesman of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, said the suspects, Marlon Luao and Coloy Entag, were nabbed by the Bayog police and members of the 53rd Infantry Battalion last Friday morning.

The two were tagged in the ambush of Lucenio Manda, barangay chairman of Conacon, and his 12-year-old son Jordan last Sept. 4.

The two suspects are now in the custody of the Bayog municipal police, Caber said. 

A homemade shotgun and a .45-caliber pistol were seized from the suspects, who are now facing murder and frustrated murder charges.

Caber said Manda is an anti-mining advocate and is a claimant of the ancestral domain for indigenous people in Bayog.

The ambush happened as he was about to bring his son to school. Manda survived the incident but his son died after sustaining bullet wounds. 

Manda has been vocal in his campaign to protect Mt. Pinukis and its forest, which is among the last untouched forested areas in the Zamboanga Peninsula.

– Alexis Romero, Roel Pareño