NPA frees mayoral bet in Davao Oriental
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Wednesday, March 14, 2010
TAGUM CITY—COMMUNIST GUERRILLAS FREED A CANDIDATE for mayor they seized for failure to pay campaign fees in Davao Oriental, the first case so far that confirmed military reports of direct guerrilla involvement in the elections.
Police said Arfran “Boy” Quiñones, a candidate for mayor of Lupon, Davao Oriental, was taken by the guerrillas on Sunday and released on Monday.
He was turned over to his wife, Luz, in a village between Lupon and Mati City, an area known to be under guerrilla control, at past 8 p.m. on Monday, according to Senior Supt. Efren Perez, Davao Oriental police chief.
Hostages
Taken with Quiñones were Ronisito Pedro, a village councilor in Lupon, and seven other men who were campaigning with Quinoñes when the guerrillas came.
The seven men were freed three hours after they were taken captive, but Quiñones and Pedro were kept in captivity until Monday, said Capt. Emmanuel Garcia, 10th Infantry Division spokesperson.
Perez said Fr. Meds Salomay, one of the province’s parish priests, witnessed the release of Quiñones and Pedro.
“We are conducting debriefing on the victims,” Perez said.
The NPA, in a statement sent to a Davao City radio station, said Quiñones, former mayor of Lupon who wants to return to office, faces charges at a guerrilla court for alleged abuses during his tenure.
A certain Ka Suram, political officer of the guerrillas’ Wilfredo Zapanta Command, said Quiñones faces three murder cases at a guerrilla court.
Senior Superintendent Perez said Quiñones and Pedro were unharmed, but Quiñones was “somehow stressed due to his diabetes.”
Perez said the guerrillas took Quiñones and Pedro apparently to force them to pay campaign fees.
Police said they would file charges against a certain Danilo Nodalo, alias Benjie, the alleged leader of the NPA group that abducted Quiñones.
Perez asked candidates to coordinate with police or the military when campaigning in areas populated by guerrillas. “This will deter rebels,” he said.
Violence elsewhere continues to escalate as the elections draw near.
Street assassination
On Monday in Digos City, a gunman shot dead a candidate for councilor of Sarangani, Davao del Sur.
Chief Insp. Anthony Padua, Digos police chief, said McArthur Cortez, 46, was with his wife waiting for a ride when the assailant came.
Gov. Douglas Cagas and McArthur’s wife, Minerva, said they believed the attack was election-related.
Minerva said her husband had a heated argument with a politician that she did not identify a few days before McArthur was killed. Frinston Lim, Orlando Dinoy, Eldie Aguirre and Tito Fiel, Inquirer Mindanao
NPA frees Davao mayoral bet
By Alexis Romero
The Philippine Star – www.philstar.com
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
MANILA, Philippines - A Davao Oriental mayoral bet who was kidnapped by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels last Sunday has been released by his captors, the military said yesterday.
In a text message, Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang, Eastern Mindanao Command spokesman, said the rebels freed Arfran Quinones, who is running for mayor of Lupon town, and a supporter after a crisis committee led by Davao Oriental Gov. Corazon Malanyaon negotiated their release.
It was not clear whether the crisis committee paid ransom to the NPA. Cabangbang said they were not privy to the terms agreed upon by the rebels and the local officials.
Cabangbang said Quinones and his supporter were released at around 8:30 p.m. Monday. He said they received unconfirmed reports that two high-powered firearms were lost to the rebels.
Cabangbang said their troops are already running after the abductors of Quinones.
“The problem is we have been telling candidates that they can request for area security from us. Some of them are not requesting for it… They (Quinones’ camp) did not make such a request,” he said.
The Army’s 10th Infantry Division said Quinones was with eight of his supporters when some 30 guerrillas held them at gunpoint.
Seven of Quinones’ supporters were immediately freed, but the mayoral bet and a former barangay councilman, a certain Ronisito Pedro, were held captive.
The military said the kidnapping may have been motivated by Quinones’ failure to pay extortion money to the NPA.
15 killed in Basilan blasts
Military official says Abu Sayyaf behind attacks
The Manila Times – www.manilatimes.net
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
ISABELA CITY, Basilan: Fifteen people were believed killed in two bombings and subsequent clashes between Abu Sayyaf militants and government troops on Tuesday in Isabela City in the southern Philippine province of Basilan.
A high-ranking official of the Roman Catholic Church in the country quickly condemned the violence but called for calm.
Basilan Bishop Martin Jumaod said during an interview over Radio Veritas that the people of Basilan, after the blasts, need assistance from the military in order to bring peace and order to the province.
The first bomb went off about 10:30 a.m. outside a building of the Department of Education near a high school sports grandstand, provincial police chief Antonio Mendoza said.
The second, rigged to a motorcycle left near a Roman Catholic cathedral, according to Mendoza, exploded minutes later as security forces chased after the suspects.
“It heavily damaged the church,” the Basilan police chief said.
“The men were shooting at civilians as they fled toward a forested area,” Mendoza added.
The attackers from the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf who set off the bombs and fired at civilians as they escaped from the targets wore police uniforms, First Lt. Steffani Cacho, a regional spokesman for the Philippine Army said.
They “meant to create havoc . . . definitely [the attacks] fall under terrorism,” Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban, the head of the Philippine Marines, told reporters in Manila.
The US State Department classifies the Abu Sayyaf as a foreign terrorist organization.
Mayor Cherry Akbar of Isabela City also told reporters that 15 people were confirmed dead, including five militants who were apparently killed by one of their own bomb blasts.
Six civilians were also killed in the explosions, while three soldiers and one policeman died in fighting with the Islamic militants, Akbar said.
At least 25 rebels wearing police uniforms were involved in the attacks, according to the region’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Ben Dolorfino.
The attackers sprayed bullets at terrified civilians scrambling away to safety and engaged security forces in a gunbattle on the outskirts of Isabela that lasted for at least three hours, according to various military chiefs.
“We have to take control and assure the people that we are on top of the situation,” Sabban said while the fighting was ongoing.
“All we know right is that our Marines right now are under fire,” he added.
Basilan, an impoverished province of nearly half a million people, is a base of the Abu Sayyaf and other Muslim rebel groups battling for an independent Islamic homeland in Mindanao.
Hundreds of US troops have been stationed in Mindanao since the end of 2001 to train and equip the Philippine military to combat the Abu Sayyaf.
Their arrival came after a series of Abu Sayyaf-led abductions, including the kidnapping of three Americans from southwestern Palawan province a few years ago.
Two of the US hostages were killed, one of whom was beheaded.
Help from the United States has led to the deaths of senior Abu Sayyaf leaders and the Philippine military says that the group now has only about 300 active militants, down from about 1,000 a decade ago.
The militants have proved an enduring threat, however.
The country’s police chief, Jesus Verzosa, last month warned that the Abu Sayyaf was increasingly using improvised bombs in its attacks.
Other recent attacks blamed on the terrorist group included a landmine blast that wounded three Filipino soldiers in Basilan last month.
Two roadside bombs killed another Filipino soldier and wounded 12 other people in near-simultaneous attacks also in the province in February.
In September 2009, an improvised explosive device believed to have been planted by the Abu Sayyaf killed a Philippine Marine and two US soldiers on a training mission in neighboring Sulu province.
On Monday, an Army soldier was wounded in an ambush by suspected Abu Sayyaf militants in Ungkaya Pukan town outside Isabela City.
AFP, Al Jacinto and Bernice Camille V. Bauzon
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