Senior Supt. Joseph Adnol, Mt. Province police director told newsmen bared this saying they have “positive leads” on the incident. He didn’t divulge names of the gunmen so as not to impede investigations.
Gov. Maximo Dalog, who visited Rafael’s wake, urged police to bring justice to the mayor’s family.
In Camp Dangwa, Benguet, Chief Supt. Eugene Martin, regional police director said investigators are now closing in on the suspects “but could not tell media yet.”
Adnol said earlier solving the case was difficult because Rafael was shot with M-16 rifles by at least five men in a secluded road away from his farm in Barangay Butigue, Paracelis. Police found at least 60 M-16 shells in the crime scene. Adnol said police found witnesses although they were quite far from the ambush site.
The New People’s Army has not claimed responsibility for the killing.
In the 1980s, the NPA held Rafael for days after his detractors branded him a “warlord.” Rafael’s daughter, Natonin Mayor Ana Marie Rafael-Banaag, told newsmen his father had kept mum on his security problems.
In Paracelis, residents said they were going home early at night following Rafael’s assassination saying they could get caught in the crossfire in case more violence would erupt as a result of the killing.
This, as the CPDF said it was conveying its “heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family of the late Mayor Cesar Rafael who was mercilessly murdered last December 25, 2007. We condemn in the strongest possible terms the perpetrators of this gruesome killing. Whatever motives the killers had, the murder was extremely overkill.
The circumstances of his murder, based on reports, indicate that the mayor was totally helpless and yet his killers pumped almost sixty bullets into his body.” Simon Naogsan, CPDF spokesman said: “We hereby declare officially that the New People's Army has nothing to do with the gruesome murder.
There is no case against him in any unit of the New People's Army much less is there any decision to mete out any revolutionary justice against the mayor. In fact, the NPA strictly adhered to its unilateral ceasefire on Christmas Day, and the Red fighters were busy preparing for the December 26 anniversary celebration of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
“While it is true that he was an avid supporter of the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army -Ambo faction for sometime, he has no record of any blood debt incurred against the revolutionary movement to warrant any military action against him. On the contrary, he was not hard put to strike a non-confrontational stance with the NPA among his constituency.
He readily and fully recognized that Paracelis, as elsewhere in eastern Mountain Province, is a showcase of government neglect and the 'milking cow' of unscrupulous politicians and contractors. He grudgingly agreed that the agrarian reform program of the NPA is the correct program to address the economic plight of his constituents.”
In a press statement, Naogsan said, “The revolutionary movement is aware of Mayor Rafael's keen interest and advocacy of the role of elders in the promotion and advancement of inter-tribal unity and protection of the national minorities' rights to ancestral land. On the other hand, this does not erase any political lapses he may have committed that have adversely affected his constituents.
We challenge the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Arroyo regime to solve this murder case as well as the extra judicial killings of innocent activists and anyone critical of the current regime.” -- AD
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