CHR to resume probe on Rebelyn rape-slay case

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

TOPNEWS PUBLISHED IN THE DURIAN POST NO. 88

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Davao Region will resume its investigation on the rape-slay of Rebelyn Pitao, the daughter of Leoncio Pitao, also known as Kumander Parago, commander of the Pulang Bagani Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) to gather more pieces of evidence for the possible filing of cases.

SIPACO: Lacking evidence

Atty. Alberto Sipaco, CHR regional director, said the three public inquiries conducted by the commission en banc in 2009 failed to gather hard evidence that warrants the filing and prosecution of cases against possible respondents.
He said CHR Davao has been tasked to continue the investigation by the CHR en banc.
“The pieces of evidence (previously)gathered were not enough,” he said.
Sipaco said the CHR plans to invite certain members of the Military Intelligence Battalion.

REBELYN CODE

nearing completion

A proposed Davao City ordinance adding more strength to national legislation on human rights protection is on its final dash to completion.

We are now finalizing the draft of the ordinance before submission to the City Council for approval, said Councilor Karlo Bello, chair of the committee on human rights.
The ordinance known as the Rebelyn Code is named after Rebelyn Pitao, daughter of Leoncio “Ka Parago” Pitao, the head of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) First Pulang Bagani Command.
Rebelyn, a high school teacher, was seized by unidentified persons two years ago while going home from school to their residence in a subdivision in Davao City. Her mutilated body would later be found dumped in an irrigation canal in Carmen, Davao del Norte. Parago claimed military agents were behind the murder. Medical findings also showed Rebelyn was raped before being killed.
The provisions have to be carefully crafted to ensure that it is capable of effective implementation and would not run contrary to an existing national law or be deemed a duplication, said Bello in the I-Speak forum of the City Hall information office.     RMB

THE DURIAN POST NO. 88 – Mayor Sara Duterte slams NPA

MAYOR Sara Duterte to NPA spokesman: If I am stupid, you are rabid and vile

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

After being called ” stupid” by a spokesman of the comunist New Peoples Army (NPA) for her call on rebel leaders to give up their arms and surrender to government, Mayor Sara Duterte has returned the complement in more acerbic, hard-to-swallow language.
If I am stupid, you are rabid and vile, said Mayor Duterte in reaction to Rigoberto Sanchez, the phantom spokesman of the NPA in Southern Mindanao, during her regular Monday press forum at City Hall.

inFRONTPAGE PUBLISHED IN THE DURIAN POST NO. 88,

Dec. 12-18, 2011

Earlier, Duterte appealed to NPA rebel leaders Leoncio “Ka Parago” Pitao, the leader of the NPA First Pulang Bagani Command operating in farflung Paquibato District, and another rebel leader she identified only as Ka Oda, to lay down their arms and talk peace with the government.
Her call came on the heels of the killing of three troopers of the Army 69th Infantry Battalion (69th IB) during a clash with the rebels in Paquibato.
“Power has gone to the head of Mayor Duterte who recently issued a stupid call for Ka Parago and Ka Oda to lay down their arms and surrender to the reactionary government, ” said spokesman Rigoberto Sanchez of the NPA Merardo Arce Command, Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command, in a statement emailed to the Durian Post.
Sanchez also assailed Duterte for what he claimed were previous anti-revolutionary statements against the NPA of the mayor.
“Her pronouncements against the NPA and the revolutionary movement have been consistent throughout this year:  malicious and a thorough disservice to the people of Davao City.  While the Merardo Arce Command-Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command-NPA has so far discounted her previous statements as merely reckless and naive, the NPA can now actually conclude that the mind and stance of Sara Duterte has bordered on being counterrevolutionary or reactionary,” said Sanchez.
“By arrogantly challenging (to) surrender NPA leaders like Ka Parago and Ka Oda, Sara Duterte has shown that she is utterly unacquainted with the fact that the NPA is a revolutionary army engaged in defending the masses from the fascist and atrocious AFP, ” said Sanchez, the faceless rebel spokesman who signs NPA press releases sent out to media.
Duterte is unfazed.
The NPA reaction only showed their true colors, she said at the City Hall presscon.
Let’s talk peace instead. I was not reactionary but conciliatory, she said.
By calling on Parago and Oda to surrender, she was acting as a chief executive seeking peace with rebels, she said lamenting that Sanchez’ reaction showed that the NPA does not want to talk peace.
They want war not peace, she said, adding her call on rebel leaders to lay their arms was a ploy to test where the NPA stands on peace.
“I just wanted to show to the people the reaction of the rebel movement on the call for peace and they took the bait. It is their reaction that is rabid and bile, we are talking about peace and sustainable development here,” she said.
Duterte dismissed claim by Sanchez that she is anti-NPA.
If I am I will just send five battalions or one division of soldiers to Paquibato District to hunt down Parago, she said. The elusive Parago, who is flesh and blood to local media unlike Sanchez, has been operating in Paquibato for more that two decades.

COMMUNIST REBELS SLAM DAVAO CITY MAYOR SARA DUTERTE FOR BEING COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY

Press Statement

4 December 2011

Mayor Sara Duterte’s surrender call:

A stupidity; reveals her reactionary character

Power has gone to the head of GPH local mayor Sara Duterte of Davao City who recently issued a stupid call for Ka Parago and Ka Oda of the New People’s Army (NPA) to lay down their arms and surrender to the reactionary government.  Ridiculously still heady with her international “punching” stature, Sara Duterte has spewed a blatant disinformation and psywar campaign to defend the 69th Infantry Battalion-10th Infantry Division-Eastern Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in connection with an NPA ambush, November 29, in Paradise Embac, Paquibato District, Davao City.  Injudicious and revealing her reactionary character, Sara Duterte apparently wants what the military and the past regimes from the time of Marcos up to now have failed to do, for Ka Parago to abandon armed struggle and the revolutionary movement.

The ambush by the 1st Pulang Bagani Company-NPA killed three soldiers of the 69th IB-AFP who were masquerading as peace and development teams in Sitio Guinobatan, Barangay Paradise Embac.  Red fighters also confiscated an M203 rifle.

Sara Duterte has made a sweeping call not even made by her father, longtime Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who has not dared to disparage Ka Parago and the NPA in such a way in the former mayor’s more than two decades at the helm of the reactionary Davao City politics.

VICE MAYOR rodrigo Duterte visiting Kumander Parago in his mountain hideout in hinterland Paquibato district

While her father has, in some ways, cooperated and recognized the cause of the revolutionary struggle, Sara Duterte has been consistently and obstinately, profuse in praises for the AFP while rabid and full of counterrevolutionary fervor towards the NPA and the revolutionary movement.

LT. COL. MAYOR INDAY. Mayor Sara Duterte earning the promotion in the Army Reserve Corps during a simple ceremonylast year at City Hall presided by Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, left, and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief-of-Staff General Ricardo David Jr. BERT TOMAS

Her pronouncements against the NPA and the revolutionary movement have been consistent throughout this year:  malicious and a thorough disservice to the people of Davao City.  While the Merardo Arce Command-Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command-NPA has so far discounted her previous statements as merely reckless and naive, the NPA can now actually conclude that the mind and stance of Sara Duterte has bordered on being counterrevolutionary or reactionary.

She first accused the NPA of targeting her during a successful military action against a supply and reconnaissance team in Paquibato last January.  She called the arrest of GPH Lingig Mayor Henry Dano and four BJMP personnel as kidnapping and plain banditry and scoffed calls by civil libertarians for the release of political detainees saying that the latter face legitimate criminal charges.  She defended, with gusto, the stay of the 69th IB-AFP detachment near a school in Paradise Embac despite it being an IHL (international humanitarian law) violation and despite the popular clamor by the masses and even by human rights advocates from the Davao City local government unit.  In defending the 69th IB-AFP, she called a September 17 NPA attack in Paradise Embac as counter-productive.  The series of NPA attacks against the 69th IB-AFP are legitimate military actions against a grossly abusive AFP unit.

All in all, Sara Duterte wants to sweep under the rug the atrocious SOT operations and fascist character of the Oplan Bayanihan operations of the 69th IB-AFP in Paquibato and other parts in Davao City and Davao del Norte.  The 69th IB-AFP’s offensive combat and psywar SOT operations have victimized thousands of peasant masses of Paquibato and in Panabo, with cases ranging from intimidation, grave threats, usurpation of civilian auspices like schools, civilian houses, barangay halls; attempted rape, molestation of women and harassment of youth and children, forced surrenders, military checkpoints manned by drunk and abusive soldiers, forced recruitment of Cafgus, instigation of a pangayaw as proxy war between lumad and non-lumad settlers, and drinking sessions by soldiers that led to various forms of harassment of local residents, to name a few.

Not content with this gross injustice, Sara Duterte has taken the stance of the fascist AFP, hook, line and sinker in demonizing the NPA and the revolutionary movement, ignorant as she is in the realities of the ongoing civil war in the country.  Sara Duterte has revealed her gross poor knowledge of the fact that the CPP-NPA-NDFP leads a political movement engaged and co-belligerent in armed conflict with the GPH.

By arrogantly challenging the surrender of NPA leaders like Ka Parago and Ka Oda, Sara Duterte has shown that she is utterly unacquainted with the fact that the NPA is a revolutionary army engaged in defending the masses from the fascist and atrocious AFP.  In offering surrender talks, would her infantile mind concoct a solution to the centuries-old problem of landlessness and exploitation, problems that have bred the armed struggle in the country?

By acting as a conscious spokesperson and defender of the fascist AFP, Sara Duterte has de facto condoned the culture of impunity in the AFP, PNP and their paramilitary groups (Cafgus and CVOs) and intelligence units.  These troops which Sara Duterte so wants to protect and prop up as harbingers of peace and order and progress, are implementing the Oplan Bayanihan, which rehashed the previous regime’s Oplan Bantay Laya in attacking communities and deploying thousands of troops deemed to be under the sway or supportive of the revolutionary movement.

Before shooting her mouth, Sara Duterte should listen to the people, investigate the onslaught of abuses by the AFP in Davao City and study even the basic rudiments of our country’s history and the civil war.  As things point to right now, she has already rendered herself as a noisy but shallow reactionary, a friend to the people’s enemy, and, who knows, an enemy in the making.

Rigoberto F. Sanchez
Spokesperson
Merardo Arce Command
Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command
New People’s Army

ALSO READ:

Davao City urges New People’s Army rebels to surrender | Sun.Star

Mayor Sara Duterte: New People’s Army rebels‘ reaction rabid, vile …

Truce call conciliatory, not reactionary: mayor | Mindanao Times

KUMANDER PARAGO A LIAR?

THEDURIANBEAT

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

Last week we received an e-mailed press release from the New Peoples Army on the alleged ambush in Paradise Embak, carried against elements of the 69th IB-1003rd Brigade-10th ID, that the statement said is an “Army unit cowardly hiding under the cloak of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.”

We published the press statement, the NPA being a regular sender of its press releases, in our blog, durianburgdavao mindanao newsblog:

PRESS STATEMENT
September 17, 2011

1 killed in NPA ambush vs 69th IB in Paquibato

A commando team of the 1st Pulang Bagani Company-NPA ambushed a Special Operations Team of the 69th Infantry Battallion of the AFP at 9:15 am today Sept.17, at Purok 7, Paradise Embac, Paquibato district, Davao City. One enemy soldier was killed. The NPA’s punitive action was in reaction to the grave human rights abuses and violations to the international humanitarian law committed by the 69th IB-1003rd Brigade-10th ID, the Army unit cowardly hiding under the cloak of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte who has largely tolerated and remained oblivious to the suffering of peasant masses in the course of military encampment of civilian communities in Paquibato district.

The NPA ambush was meant to give justice to the victims of grave intimidation, torture, grave threats, mainly women, schoolchildren, and peasants in Paquibato. It was in retaliation to the 69th IB’s obstinate militarism when it intensified its combat and psychological warfare operations in the wake of the Sept. 12 onsite investigation where the basic masses aired their grievances and demand for a military pull-out to local GPH legislators. Berserk and angry at the peasant masses, the 69th IB soldiers, led by one Lt. Malinaw, stepped up their harassment and psywar campaign in Purok 8, Crossing Ginobatan, Brgy. Paradise Embac and in Brgy. Pandaitan.

Special Operations Teams of the 69th IB-1003rd Bde-10th ID occupied civilian villages in four barangays in Carmen town, 18 barangays in Panabo city in Davao del Norte, in Brgy. Paradise Embac and Brgy. Pandaitan in Paquibato district, in Brgy. Lasang and Brgy. Bunawan in  Davao city’s Bunawan District.  
The 69th IB is not only desperate in seeking to obscure the atrocious character of its combat and psychological warfare operations masked as “peace and development program” in Davao City and Davao del Norte. Worse, it attempts to hide under the mantle of protection of  no less than the Davao City Mayor herself to justify its hated presence.
The 69th IB soldiers forced parents, teachers and the school principal in Paradise Embac to sign an affidavit supporting a feeding program, conveniently disguised as a joint project between the AFP and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.  The 69th IB’s propensity to cajole civilians and civilian authorities is the hallmark of its psywar operations. Its web of lies and distortion of facts to suppress legitimate civilian complaints against its military detachment is mounting; Army officials went as far as outrageously saying that the military structure was 300 meters away from the school and already nine years in place. In truth, said edifice is, in plain view, in close proximity to the school. And by dint of simple twist of facts here and there, the 69th IB-AFP wheedles Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte to be its de facto spokesperson– who, in sweeping generalization, dismissed the serious complaints of human rights violations.
Last year, 87 youths in Paquibato district did not receive a single cent, nor a certification or an acknowledgment that they were scholars by the GPH’s TESDA, despite a declaration by the 10th Infantry Division-AFP who used their names to download said funds. The list of abuses, from forced intimidation to corruption is only the latest in the long list of abuses committed by the 69th IB, whose presence is worse than the rat infestation that earlier plagued Paquibato district. Ironically, the AFP troops mouth off human rights tenets but simply cannot apply what it fundamentally abhors:  the basic masses’ freedom to express and resist.#  

(SGD) Ka Parago
1st Pulang Bagani Company
Merardo Arce Command
Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command
New People’s Army

THE CLAIM OF of Leoncio “Ka Parago” Pitao was outrightly denied by no less than Mayor Sara Duterte, who condemned the attack, with a harsh addendum : the NPA attack was  counter-productive against the entire development of Davao City.

Mayor Duterte’s statement on her reaction to the NPA assault was publidhed in SunStar Davao on September 18, 2011:

DAVAO City Mayor Sara Z. Duterte condemned the recent attack by the New People’s Army (NPA) on a military detachment in Paradise Embac, Paquibato district early Saturday.

Duterte called the NPA attack as a counter-productive move against the entire development of Davao City.

“It does not contribute to the progress and development of Davao City,” Duterte told Sun.Star Davao over the weekend.

Duterte said that contrary to NPA claims, not a single soldier was killed in the attack. She said the attack was perpetrated by commando team of the NPA’s 1st Pulang Bagani Company under the Merardo Arce command operating in the same area.

The NPA also claimed that one member of the government’s side has been killed. But Duterte was quick to say that there has been no casualty on the government’s side.

Duterte, however, said a certain PFC Motoc who was claimed by the NPA to have died in the attack only sustained minor injury. Motoc is presently undergoing medical treatment. (Jereco O. Paloma)

WE HAD BEEN HAD  had by the NPA statement, a risk we have to sometime suffer in pursuing balance in reporting.

The first statement was followed by another e-mailed to us on September 25, 2011, also about an alleged NPA ambush on military elements on September 19, 2011 in Lumiad Paquibato. We had been burned before by the first statement, and we did not publish the press release without checking first the NPA claim of 8 troopers killed in the ambush.

We are now publishing this statement to establish that somebody is lying in the propaganda war between the military and the NPA—-with media often the hapless victim, their credibility to pursue “journalistic balance” placed under severe fire due to the lies fed by certain parties:

Press Statement
September 25, 2011

No NPA camp overrun; 1st PBC ambush downs 8 AFP troops in Paquibato

Eight enemy forces of the 69th IB were killed and an undetermined number were wounded after a team of the 1st Pulang Bagani Company-NPA on Sept. 19 at 1:15 pm engaged them in a firefight preceded by an explosion of seven command detonated explosive in sitio Banban, Brgy Lumiad, Paquibato district, Davao city. Yet, the enemy not only concealed the  casualties, the 10th Infantry Division-Eastern Mindanao Command went as far as to publicize a fake victory in saying that their forces overrun a big NPA camp and seized several explosives and high powered rifles.  Two NPA members Ka Boboy and Ka Cosme were martyred in the Sept. 19 ambush.

In full view to the peasant masses, the enemy carried the bodies of their casualties using two huey helicopters; one of the huey helicopter which can carry 10 people, twice returned to the area. After the 1 hr and 15-minute firefight, a white double body plane bombed the farm fields of sitio Banban six times.  Later, the masses saw the road leading to the 69th IB battalion headquarters at Brgy. Dalisay, Panabo city was closed, as the enemy administered to disembarking the bodies from the helicopter. A hearse twice returned to get the casualties. Later the bodies of the two NPA martyrs were seen left at the headquarters. Soldiers also carried two explosives from the site; later the AFP showed it to the media along with other previously seized explosives.

The AFP’s fictitious story heralded their other fallacious media blitz of a nationwide ceasefire with the NPA last Sept. 21.  The script in Sept. 21 exposed the desperation of the AFP in further deceiving the public as to the real score of the US-Aquino regime’s Oplan Bayanihan.  No such ceasefire occurred in Paquibato and elsewhere in the countryside. Military operations by the 69th IB terrorized the masses in Brgy. Lumiad, Mapula, Pandaitan all in Paquibato district.  
One Joselito Panal, formerly with the 73rd IB, arrested a coconut wine gatherer, Gilbert Sibala in sitio carbon, Brgy Lumiad  on 8 am of Sept 21. Sibala, a nephew of a retired master sergeant of the 69th IB, was forced to sign surender papers. Two soldiers acted as witnesses and forced the police to file charges against Sibala by using planted evidence: his picture was taken where he was wearing a jungle uniform and carrying a weapon and ammunition.

The AFP has not shaken off its fangs with Oplan Bayanihan; it only improved itself as a chronic liar and as desperately anti-people.

(SGD) Ka Parago
1st Pulang Bagani Company
Merardo Arce Command
Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command
New People’s Army

WE CHECKED AROUND in media sources and even military sources and like Mayor Duterte, who denied claims of the NPA in the first statement on the Paradise Embak,
they denied the latest NPA claim as an unbelievable, tall story of untruth.

WE LEARNED A LESSON in our pursuit of journalistic balance in the propaganda war between the military and the NPA and has resolved that from now on there would be no place in our journalistic endeavors for press statements from the NPA—for having burned us twice with lies peddled as truth in their issued press releases.

IT IS EITHER THAT Ka Parago lied or somebody lied for him—and we would not like to be caught in the middle for being gullible.

Durianburgdavao mindanao newsblog and its author are committed to help promote progress and development, and peace, in Mindanao,(read: Durianburgdavao News Forum For Peace In Mindanao Blog Posts – Top … ) and would rather concentrate energies in this endeavor rather than dip our fingers and be party to  ideological propaganda.

1 killed in NPA ambush vs 69th IB in Paquibato

Press Statement

September 17, 2011

A commando team of the 1st Pulang Bagani Company-NPA ambushed a Special Operations Team of the 69th Infantry Battallion of the AFP at 9:15 am today Sept.17, at Purok 7, Paradise Embac, Paquibato district, Davao City. One enemy soldier was killed. The NPA’s punitive action was in reaction to the grave human rights abuses and violations to the international humanitarian law committed by the 69th IB-1003rd Brigade-10th ID, the Army unit cowardly hiding under the cloak of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte who has largely tolerated and remained oblivious to the suffering of peasant masses in the course of military encampment of civilian communities in Paquibato district.

The NPA ambush was meant to give justice to the victims of grave intimidation, torture, grave threats, mainly women, schoolchildren, and peasants in Paquibato. It was in retaliation to the 69th IB’s obstinate militarism when it intensified its combat and psychological warfare operations in the wake of the Sept. 12 onsite investigation where the basic masses aired their grievances and demand for a military pull-out to local GPH legislators. Berserk and angry at the peasant masses, the 69th IB soldiers, led by one Lt. Malinaw, stepped up their harassment and psywar campaign in Purok 8, Crossing Ginobatan, Brgy. Paradise Embac and in Brgy. Pandaitan.

Special Operations Teams of the 69th IB-1003rd Bde-10th ID occupied civilian villages in four barangays in Carmen town, 18 barangays in Panabo city in Davao del Norte, in Brgy. Paradise Embac and Brgy. Pandaitan in Paquibato district, in Brgy. Lasang and Brgy. Bunawan in  Davao city’s Bunawan District.

The 69th IB is not only desperate in seeking to obscure the atrocious character of its combat and psychological warfare operations masked as “peace and development program” in Davao City and Davao del Norte. Worse, it attempts to hide under the mantle of protection of  no less than the Davao City Mayor herself to justify its hated presence.

The 69th IB soldiers forced parents, teachers and the school principal in Paradise Embac to sign an affidavit supporting a feeding program, conveniently disguised as a joint project between the AFP and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.  The 69th IB’s propensity to cajole civilians and civilian authorities is the hallmark of its psywar operations. Its web of lies and distortion of facts to suppress legitimate civilian complaints against its military detachment is mounting; Army officials went as far as outrageously saying that the military structure was 300 meters away from the school and already nine years in place. In truth, said edifice is, in plain view, in close proximity to the school. And by dint of simple twist of facts here and there, the 69th IB-AFP wheedles Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte to be its de facto spokesperson– who, in sweeping generalization, dismissed the serious complaints of human rights violations.

Last year, 87 youths in Paquibato district did not receive a single cent, nor a certification or an acknowledgment that they were scholars by the GPH’s TESDA, despite a declaration by the 10th Infantry Division-AFP who used their names to download said funds. The list of abuses, from forced intimidation to corruption is only the latest in the long list of abuses committed by the 69th IB, whose presence is worse than the rat infestation that earlier plagued Paquibato district. Ironically, the AFP troops mouth off human rights tenets but simply cannot apply what it fundamentally abhors:  the basic masses’ freedom to express and resist.

Leoncio “Ka Parago” Pitao
1st Pulang Bagani Company
Merardo Arce Command
Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command
New People’s Army

KADAYAWAN FESTIVAL 2011 – sEARCH FOR HIYAS – NPA rebel leader Kumander Parago to crown Hiyas?

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

       Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is going up a scale higher than daughter Mayor Sara Duterte who has invited New People’s Army leader Leoncio Pitao aka Kumander arago to come down from his mountain lair in far-flung Paquibato district  to join in the celebration of the Kdayawan Festival 2011 in the city proper.

       Why don’t we have Kumander Parago crown the Hiyas ng Kadayawan? said the vice mayor in jest during a huddle with local media recently.

       Mayor  Duterte in March also invited Parago and his rebel band to join the Araw ng Dabaw, which the elusive leader of the communist movement in the city politely refused.

              Parago, head of the NPA Pulang Bagani Command, would be arrested on sight, said police and military. The rebel leader has a P5million prize on his head for arrest warrants issued for crimes ranging from murder to arson.

              The search for the Hiyas ng Kadayawan is one of the highlights of the festival. It has gained indigenous color since last year when organizers limited contestants to girls with tribal or Muslim blood.

       Ten contestants are competing for the crown this year—five from the lumad tribes and five from the Muslim tribes.

       Marideth Sicutan, the reigning festival queen, comes from the Ata tribe of Paquibato, where Parago and his rebel band have a heavy presence. ROGER M. BALANZA

inFRONTPAGE

PUBLISHED IN THE DURIAN POST NO.74, August 15-21, 2011

 

Kumander Parago daughter’s death inspires Davao City dad

Rebelyn Code vs military human rights abuses

By ROGER M. BALANZA

            DAVAO CITY – New People’s Army (NPA) commander Leoncio “Parago” Pitao’s loss could mean gain for people with relatives involved in insurgency.    

BELLO

A Davao City Council member is proposing to enact a code that would protect civilians like Rebelyn Pitao, Parago’s daughter, who was raped, tortured and killed by unidentified perpetrators two years ago. The NPA said military operatives were behind the killing.City councilor Karlo Bello said the code to be known as the Rebelyn Code aims to give local color and more teeth in the implementation of national and international laws on the protection of human rights and children’s welfare, and in the promotion of fairness, justice and equality.

            

KUMANDER PARAGO

While relatives of NPA members are the code’s primary concern, all civilians caught in the middle of a confrontation between government military and communist rebels should also be amply protected, said Bello in a speech delivered recently at the local legislative body, said Bello. In his speech, Bello expressed alarm at growing complaints from civilians being harassed and intimidated, or at the worse killed—either by military or the rebels—when caught in the crossfire of the encounters in the city’s hinterland areas.

            The communist insurgency here is active in far flung districts like Paquibato where the NPA 1^st Pulang Bagani Command headed by Parago is based.            Bello said civilians, with relatives involved in insurgency, are the most vulnerable to various forms of harassment and should be provided with protection and security.            Rebelyn was found dead dumped in a canal in Carmen, Davao del Norte with five fatal stab wounds a day after she was snatched in Davao City. Her body bore marks of torture. Medical findings said she was also raped before being killed.            Rebelyn, 22, was on her way home from a teaching job in a Catholic school in Toril district when abducted            In his statement to media, Parago mentioned the names of the military agents behind the killing of Rebelyn.            Bello said that the code would establish barangay-level human rights monitoring teams which would provide security and protection to families of NPA members being threatened by military. The team would also be tasked with investigating human rights violations. Rebelyn’s killing was widely condemned here by various sectors. Her murder remains unsolved.

Talking with rebels is now Sara’s task

MAYOR MEETS WITH TOP REBEL COMMANDER

By ROGER M. BALANZA

                He may not break an old connection with communist rebels here, but Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is now letting daughter Mayor Sara Duterte alone in handling the insurgents and their leaders like Leoncio “Parago” Pitao.

                Vice Mayor Duterte said Sara met with Parago and his political officer, a Ka Benajmin, last week in Paquibato, but he was clueless about what transpired between the mayor and the rebel leaders who huddled in a “closed door” meeting in a hut in the hinterland district.

                Duterte, known to have close relations with the rebels during his 20 years as city mayor, said Parago wanted only to talk with Sara, she being the mayor. He said that while the meeting was ongoing, he walked around to talk with villagers about their problems.

                It is now Sara’s ball, said Duterte in the Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa television program co-hosted by lawyer Geraldine Chiu on ABS/CBN on Sunday. Coming down from the Wednesday visit in an undisclosed village, Sara told media it was her first time to meet with the rebel leaders, who made the invite.

                Sara said she and the rebels discussed the ongoing peace talks, but local issues involving the mayor and the local government were also placed on the table.

                “Some of them were doable, and some of them were beyond my position as mayor,” Sara told local media.

                Among the issues that Parago raised were social services, land reform, mining, landmine and military operation.

            Sara said one issue brought up by Parago had emotional undertones: the abduction and murder of his daughter Rebelyn Pitao three years ago where alleged military operatives were primary suspects; and the education of their children now leaving with Parago’s wife in downtown. He sought assurance his family would not be harmed since they are not involved in rebellion, she said.

Duterte as observer in GPH-NDF Oslo talks

            He did not want to be in the government panel in peace talks with communist rebels, but Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte may still find himself in the Oslo, Norway talks as an “observer.”

            Earlier, Duterte said he would be comfortable being an observer to the Government of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front Philippines (GPH-NDFP) , to share inputs on how the panels could achieve their mission of ending the 40-year old insurgency. Both parties have declared a seven-day ceasefire starting on February 15 to start off the preliminary talks.

            Duterte had been deeply involved with the communist movement in the Davao Region often acting as “mediator” in the release of military and police personnel captured by the NPA.

            Mayor Sara Duterte last week her father could help in the talks after hearing reports he had been invited as an observer. But she said the reports are raw that she could not confirm.

            However, she said she had the feeling Duterte would grab the offer, saying that her father

DUTERTE WITH LEONCIO "PARAGO" PITAO, head of the NPA 1st Pulang Bagani Command

 already had made public statements about his willingness to act as an observer in the peace talks.

             Sara said Duterte had ample experiences in dealing with the rebels that he can share in the peace negotiations.

            We know Davao City’s history with Duterte as mayor for 20 years gaining wisdom in dealing with the communist rebellion, she said.