BY LUZ RIMBAN and ARTHA KIRA PAREDESVERA FILES
BANGUED, Abra—A spate of killings here has left at least five people dead in a span of three weeks and has alarmed church and civil society leaders who fear this mountain town is turning into a “killing field.”
The killings have prompted the Catholic Church and civil society groups to reactivate the Abra Multisectoral Group (AMSG), an organization formed to guard against election violence in the May 2010 elections. The group will address the rising incidence of violent crimes this time.
“What is alarming is that in most of these killings, allegedly the suspects are minors and allegedly they do these crimes because of drugs,” said Bishop Leopoldo Jaucian of the Diocese of Bangued.
“What is alarming is that in most of these killings, allegedly the suspects are minors and allegedly they do these crimes because of drugs,” said Bishop Leopoldo Jaucian of the Diocese of Bangued.
Jaucian said it is ironic that these killings are happening in a month that the Church has declared “pro-life” month.
The most prominent victim is Cirilo Gallardo, a popular disc jockey at the local FM radio station DZPA and mathematics teacher at the Divine Word College of Bangued (DWCB). Gallardo was buried on Tuesday.
Gallardo was stabbed to death in his home by still unidentified assailants believed to be teenagers. No one has been arrested and police are still investigating the case.
Earlier, on Jan. 18, a member of the Sangguniang Bayan of Tineg town, along with two other companions, was gunned down in Bangued’s Zone 7 as they were on their way to a wake. No killers have been arrested; no motives could be ascertained.
On Feb. 5, Jayvee Roda, 20, was accosted by teenagers near Bangued’s Calaba River. Reports say the teenagers just asked him his name and where he was from, and then shot him.
Roda was in Bangued to lodge with relatives while preparing to take the exams for the Philippine Army scheduled on Feb. 7 in Lagangilang town.
His relatives said Roda had walked a whole day from his hometown Tineg, Abra’s most remote and most inaccessible town. Tineg can be reached only by foot, especially when it rains.
“They are making Bangued their killing field,” lamented Pura Sumangil, head of the Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government (CCAGG), which also serves as the secretariat for the AMSG.
By “they” Sumangil was referring to gangs that are believed responsible for the spate of killings, as well as mayors of Abra towns, most of whom actually live in the capital, Bangued. Sumangil said some of these politicians have taken their squabbles with them to Bangued.
Jaucian said there are reports the killing of the Sangguniang Bayan member of Tineg was “still connected to politics.”
On Tuesday, students of DWCB where Gallardo taught as well as their parents held a motorcade and converged at the town plaza after his burial.
At the plaza, the AMSG read a letter written by the Diocese of Bangued, DWCB, DZPA, CCAGG and ADTEMCO condemning the murder and demanding that the local police, the Department of Justice, Bangued Mayor Ryan Luna and other local officials do something to stop the killings.
Amid the killings, residents and visitors have been advised to keep off the streets by nightfall. Bus companies have also been quietly discouraging passengers from getting off at points in the town, except at bus terminals.
When reached through his mobile phone, Senior Inspector Drake Bantag, Bangued chief of police, said Gallardo’s murder had a “case confidentiality” because initial investigations have led them to believe that the perpetrators were minors.
But he said police have not yet made any official statement because they did not have scientific and physical evidence to prove the suspects’ guilt.
Since Gallardo’s body was discovered in the morning of Jan. 31 at his temporary residence in Barangay Bangbangar, Bangued, text messages implicating barangay captain Buc Luna have circulated.
One of the text messages allegedly sent by one of the killers contained 855 characters (equivalent to six messages) and said the Dangdangla barangay captain, who was the president of their fraternity, gave them drugs and “Ecstasy” and told them to produce P300,000.
Part of the message that also asked the forgiveness of Gallardo’s family read “…Awan mapanunot ko no d pan agtakaw ta ada maited ko t grupo. Napatay ko ni sir cirilo ta iso t imbaga djay maysa a member nga ayan ti kwarta (I couldn’t think of any other way except steal so that I can give something to the group. I killed Sir Cirilo because one of the members said he had the money).”
Bantag said police also pursued this angle but no physical evidence corroborated the said confession.
Bangued Mayor Ryan Luna, brother of Buc Luna, said the text messages were meant to destroy his reputation.
“My conscience is clean,” he said in Ilocano, adding that this is the only way that his detractors could discredit him because they “could not accept” that Bangued has improved much since his term.
“They could not find fault in me because not even municipal employees who did not support me were terminated from service,” he said.
Luna said his family was also blamed for the shooting of the vehicles of their known political opponent but that even the installed CCTVs could not prove the accusations.
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(VERA Files is put out by veteran journalists taking a deeper look at current issues. Vera is Latin for “true.”)
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(VERA Files is put out by veteran journalists taking a deeper look at current issues. Vera is Latin for “true.”)
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