NPA claims killing of lumad leader in Malaybalay City

From the Sun Star-Cagayan de Oro (May 21): NPA claims killing of lumad leader in Malaybalay City

AFTER owning up that they had a hand in the death of former policeman and cult leader Francisco Baguiz in Gingoog City, the New People’s Army (NPA) admitted anew that they are responsible for the killing of Datu Benjamin “Otto” Omao, an indigenous people’s (lumad) mandatory representative at Malaybalay City’s legislative council.

In a statement issued Saturday, May 21, the Maoist revolutionaries accused Omao of alleged land-grabbing, one of the reasons he was executed.

“Datu Omao was a criminal, a land-grabber, intimidating and a deep-rooted counterrevolutionary. He was notorious in the area for his association with the bandit group Delamance,” said Ariel “Inda” Magbanwag, the NPA-South Central Bukidnon spokesperson.

The NPA said it carried out an assassination on Omao inside his office in Purok 3, Barangay Casisang, Malaybalay on May 17.

Read: NPA owns up killing ex-cop in Gingoog City

According to reports, Omao was serving his second term as mandatory representative and chaired the City Council’s committee on ethnic and indigenous cultural communities development prior to his death.

Omao, the group said, was reportedly protected by a retired military official since 1995, and in spite of this, he was chosen as IP mandatory representative in Malaybalay by coercing the tribal leaders to vote for him.

The NPA has also alleged that Omao had engaged in selling of marijuana in 2005-2006, and snatching the 40-hectare land of Nido Omeran in 2007 in Sitio Umbawan, Barangay Managok, Malaybalay.

Aside from his alleged crimes, the armed rebels said Omao was active in recruiting members for the armed group Alamara in Cabanglasan and Malaybalay.

“He had threatened the lumad who opposed him. In village meetings, he had been blatant in calling for the lumad to call any member of the NPA they meet,” the group added.

For all his alleged criminal activities before he was killed, the NPA has urged the local governments unit not to put an IP mandatory representative who has committed crimes and that they must verify the record of the person they are going to put in any government position first.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayan-de-oro/local-news/2016/05/21/npa-claims-killing-lumad-leader-malaybalay-city-474899