Police arrest suspect in killing of Balweg

By DEXTER SEE

BAGUIO CITY – Intelligence operatives of the Benguet Provincial Police Office and the Police Regional Office in the Cordillera arrested one of the principal suspects in the murder of former rebel priest Conrado Balweg more than seven years ago at the UP Village here in Barangay Irisan on April 21.

Chief Supt. Raul S. Gonzales, regional police director identified the arrested murder suspect as Francisco Jun Bonoan, alias “Cesor” or “Jojo”, reportedly the acting secretary of the Urban White Area Command and member of the executive committee of the Ilocos-Cordillera Regional party committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines .

Bonoan underwent rigid tactical interrogation by the regional police investigation and intelligence division. Gonzales said the arrest of Bonoan indicated the support of the police for the Armed Forces of the Philippines to address insurgency and justice for the murder of Balweg.
On the evening of Dec. 31, 1999, unidentified armed men forcibly entered the ancestral home of Balweg in Malibcong, Abra and shot him, causing his instant death. Balweg, who founded the Cordillera People’s Libertion Army, forged a peace agreement with former president Corazon C. Aquino in the Mount Data peace agreement that allowed CPLA rebels to lay down their arms in exchange for the establishment of an autonomous region in the Cordillera as provided for in the 1987 Constitution.

The historical signing of the Mount Data peace accord was held at the Mount Data Hotel in Bauko, Mountain Province on Sept. 13, 1987. Gonzales said the arrest of Bonoan was a breakthrough in the search for justice by the Balweg family in the assassination of the former rebel priest who turned peace advocate.