GONZAGA, CAGAYAN – Gunmen clad in para-military style uniform shot dead Mayor Carlito Pentecostes Jr. of this northeastern town on the foothills of the Sierra Madre during Monday’s flag-raising ceremony, sending panic-stricken employees of the first-class town fleeing to safety, the military said.
Pentecostes
“Pursuit operations are now ongoing. Soldiers from the 502nd Infantry Brigade are coordinating closely with the Philippine National Police for appropriate action,” said Maj. Gen. Emmanuel Garcia, commander of the military’s 1st Civil Relations Group.
Pentecostes, a second-termer mayor of this town, more than 550 kms north of Manila, was slain in a daring attack before an awe-struck audience of employees at around 8:15 a.m., shortly before he was to deliver his message before them, a resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Manila Bulletin by telephone.
The resident said the suspects, between 15 and 20 in number, were in military uniform and scattered leaflets before they fled in several vehicles, including a commandeered police patrol car along the main highway which leads to Santa Ana town, nearly 30 kms to the east facing the Babuyan Channel.
Aquino Condemns Killing
In Manila, a spokesman for President Benigno S. Aquino III condemned the murder and said catching the killers would be a government priority.
Maj. Gen. Benito de Leon, commander of the Army’s 5th Infantry Division, said additional troops had been dispatched to augment the local police and seal off the area in efforts to capture the suspects.
De Leon said information reaching his office indicated the mayor, in his late 50s, thought the suspects were military personnel.
Upon seeing them in the crowd, Pentecostes reportedly approached the suspects.
“The mayor thought they were military people so pumunta siya para kausapin, yun pala hindi,” said De Leon.
The 5ID commander said the armed men held and disarmed the mayor’s bodyguards before shooting Pentecostes.
Initial investigation suggested Pentecostes, a civil engineer by profession, appeared to be the main and only target of the assailants.
Police at the scene appeared helpless after they were disarmed as the gunman approached Pentecostes, according to SPO1 Maricon Labsangkay, of the Gonzaga police.
“They disarmed not only the policemen who attended the flag-raising but also those manning the traffic,” Labsangkay told the Manila Bulletin in a phone interview.
Labsangkay said Pentecostes appeared to have witnessed the arrival of the gunmen on board a van but thought they were government troops.
Labsangkay said the incident did not end in the shooting as some of the armed men barged inside several offices and took some of the office equipment and personal belongings of the employees.
“They took several computer units and bags. They also destroyed some office equipment,” said Labsangkay.
The suspects were also reported to have carted away the three Glock caliber 9mm pistols from the disarmed police officers.
Killers Apologize
Shortly after Pentecostes was shot, the suspects disarmed and tied at least three policemen manning vehicular traffic nearby, with one of them quoted as telling the police in Ilocano “Pasensiakayon sir, awan basolyo, ni laeng mayoryo ti nakabasol,” (Our apologies, sir, you are not at fault, only your mayor is.)
Other leaflets had the line, also in the Ilocano language, “Hustisya para iti kaaduan, dusaen dagiti utek ti dayuhan a minas iti Cagayan.” (Justice for the majority, punish the brains of the illegal mining operations by foreigners in Cagayan).
Asked if those responsible are New People’s Army (NPA), Labsangkay said the involvement of the communist rebels was indicated in the leaflets.
But when De Leon was asked if there are indications that the suspects could be members of the NPA, he said this angle was being investigated.
He said police are now looking into the motive behind the attack although “there are speculations that there are some groups who are not happy with his (mayor’s) business arrangements in the area.”
“So parang ginantihan siya, pero speculation yun,” he stressed.
The NPA has been active in Cagayan in recent months. Only last January, they raided a black sand mining firm there and burnt heavy equipment.
De Leon further said additional Army personnel were deployed to seal off the area in an effort to capture those behind the attack.
But some from the town said the suspects appear to be guerrillas of the military wing of the dwindling Communist Party of the Philippines, which has been waging a 45-year-old insurgency in the hinterlands of the country.
According to some employees, many of whom scampered to the nearby rice fields, the suspects scattered leaflets “where the content was about black sand mining and how they will punish the people involved.”
Black Sand Mining
Pentecostes, who became Gonzaga’s chief executive in 2010, has been accused by environmentalists of abetting illegal black sand mining in his area, allegations he denied.
He was a member of the opposition coalition which includes Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, said Toby Tiangco, secretary-general of the party.
Informed sources said Gonzaga hosts foreigners doing black sand mining in the province, alleged to be illegal and has been reportedly the subject of the complaints of the local residents.
In Manila, Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, chief police information officer, said black sand mining is one of the angles they are looking into as the motive behind the death of Pentecostes.
But aside from mining, Sindac said local politics will also be included in the conduct of investigation.
“This (politics) is one of the factors that will be considered,” said Sindac.
But he said the possible lapses of the local police will also be investigated.
“But the possible lapses will be taken up later, our main concern now is to run after the perpetrators,” said Sindac.
http://www.mb.com.ph/suspected-npas-gun-down-cagayan-town-mayor/
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