Cagayan De Oro
City, Misamis Oriental — The military is verifying reports of the presence in
this region of the New People’s Army’s (NPA’s) “Sparrow Unit” from other parts
of Mindanao.
Major Christian
Uy, spokesman of the 4th Infantry Division, said the presence of the NPA”s
trained assassins from other parts of Mindanao
came up in the investigation into the killing of a Bukidnon town mayor and a
Misamis Oriental councilor, recently.
It will be
recalled that suspected NPA rebels killed Impasug-ong Mayor Mario Okinlay in an
ambush in his own town in Bukidnon, last July 2.
Likewise, a
statement released by the NPA owned up to the killing of a Councilor Cecilio
Abuhan last Thursday in the town of Opol
The NPA statement
read: “A team under the Regional Command of the North Central Mindanao Region
assassinated councilor Cecilio ‘Anggong’ Abuhan, at 4:00 p.m. on August 21,
2014, at Bagocboc, Opol, Misamis Oriental.”
Uy said a Sparrow
Unit of the NPA from another part of Mindanao
could be behind the assassination of Abuhan, even as witnesses said the
assassins are in their young ages and armed with .45-caliber and .9mm handguns.
Abuhan succumbed
to eight bullet wounds – six in the head and two in the body – from .45-caliber
and .9mm pistols.
He was riding a
single motorcycle when ambushed by armed men who escaped using two motorcycles.
Uy said it
appears that the communist rebels are not just into banditry anymore, but also
entered the gun-for-hire business, even importing Sparrow Unit’s assassins from
other parts of Mindanao .
Margilen Abuhan,
wife of the slain councilor and who is a chairwoman in Barangay Bagokbok, said
she received information that her husband was among the targets of a
liquidation squad of the NPA.
Senior Inspector
Alwin Baclao, Opol police chief, said the investigation is focusing on the
motive of the killing to identify the gunmen. Abuhan had been in politics since
1994 and was serving his second term as councilor.
The NPA statement
accuses Abuhan of accumulating firearms for his private army, alleged
involvement in various human rights abuses and crimes that are anti-people, and
for burning more than 20 houses in 2004 and 2008.
The NPA also
accused the slain Abuhan of “direct involvement” for the death of farmers and
Lumad leaders Gilbert Paborada ug Rolen Langala.
http://www.mb.com.ph/sparrow-unit-behind-assassinations-in-bukidnon-misamis-says-military/
"Sparrow" is the slang reference to SPARU or Special Partisan Unit assassination teams of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) military wing the New People's Army (NPA).
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