Lawyer says Abra mayor has nothing to do with ambush: Civilians killed in bloody massacre

By Dexter A. See

TINEG, Abra -- Four people, including a fleeing 13-year-old boy, were killed while five others, mostly children, were wounded in an ambush reportedly staged last week by combined elements of the New People’s Army and armed goons of a local politician in Abra.

This, as a supposed gunman responsible for the killing of a child in the ambush Eugenio "Hens" Califlores, is a stranger in the town and is closely linked to other politicians, not to Tineg Mayor Edwin Crisologo, lawyer Estelita Cordero, Crisologo’s counsel told the media.

The massacre, dubbed by local police, Army and political leaders as the “worst in the history of Abra” was conducted in the mountains of Barangay Alaoa here and done four days before the visit Wednesday of President Arroyo to preside over the peace and order council meeting in the province.

Senior Supt. Alexander Pumecha said troopers including Special Action Forces of the PNP are tracking down fleeing rebels led by CPP-NPA leader Procopio Tauro who ambushed the civilian-packed pick-up truck along the provincial road in sitio Dangpaoan, in Alaoa afternoon of April 4.

Pumecha said the pick-up vehicle where 14 passengers were riding enroute to Bangued, Abra’s capital town from sitio Alaoa was forced to stop at an ascending portion of the provincial road because big boulders were positioned as road blocks.
When at full stop, Pumecha said, the armed men who apparently pre-positioned themselves in higher grounds fired at the vehicle killing Darwin Enso, Marnold Kikbat, minor Carlo Ayaba and Edgar Sagudang.

Those who were rushed to the Abra Provincial Hospital were: Maricel Tadi, a teacher; Oliver Blanco; two-year old Rodessa Blanco and Sonny Benggay.

Other passengers of the pick-up escaped unharmed.

Immediately, those who were killed were brought to the Pined Funeral Homes in Bangued town.

Wounded were 19-month old baby Rodesa Blanco; 16-year old Oliver Blanco; Maricar Blanco; Maricel Tandi, and driver, Sonny Boy Bengay.

The Abra provincial director said armed men, positioned above the road indiscriminately fired at the vehicle.

As the passengers jumped out and scampered for safety, Pumecha said the NPAs and other goons approached the vehicle and systematically shot down and finished off some of the wounded lying helpless on the road.

Losing Tineg mayoralty candidate Lenin Benwaren, brother of slain Tineg mayor Clarence in 2003, owns the vehicle which the victims rode, also prompting suspicion that the ambush might have been motivated by the long-standing political violence between warring politicians in the said town.

But Pumecha still suspects it may have been NPA rebels who ambushed the victims though the Abra-based Agustin Begnalen Command of the CPP-NPA has not acknowledged the incident.

Sources hinted that one of the ambushers with the NPAs is a local ally of Benwaren’s nemesis – Mayor Edwin Crisologo.

“I will kill all of you,” survivors quoted the screaming Eugenio “Hen” Califlores, as he mercilessly gunned down one person, who was running for his life.

Pumecha identified Califlores as one of the armed goons of Tineg Mayor Edwin Crisologo.

Califlores and his companions only stopped their bloody rampage when NPA commander Procopio Tauro alias Ka Pyro intervened and allowed the surviving victims to leave for treatment at hospitals.

Pumecha said the apparent target of the ambush was Tineg Sangguniang Bayan member Rey Tandi.

Tandi escaped with only scratches and bruises but his wife, Maricel, was shot in the neck as she cowered to shield her two young children, eight-year old Raymart and nine-year old Richelle. Both children were unhurt.

In an interview, Tandi admitted that he is being blamed by the NPA for the death of Lilitte Racquel alias Ka Trina in October 2007.

Tandi said he never expected that the NPA would join and utilize Crisologo’s crazed goons in targeting innocent women and children in their thirst for revenge.

However, Tandi could only surmise mindless violence as the motive in the ambush since it was still daylight and the ambushers could not have mistaken the women and children riding in the pick-up from their high vantage positions.

Pumecha described the incident as “by far the worst atrocity committed by the goons-New Peoples Army tandem in the province, since they started abducting and executing unarmed civilians in September 2007.

This, as a supposed gunman responsible for the killing of a child in the ambush Eugenio "Hens" Califlores, is a stranger in the town and is closely linked to other politicians, not to Tineg Mayor Edwin Crisologo.

Cordero said "it is impossible for anyone to link Crisologo to the dastardly crime because Califlores is a resident of Lagayan, Abra."

She said Langayan is the hometown of Rep. Cecille Luna, and the municipal mayor there is her son.

Cordero said that "it is very clear that the ambush on Councilor Ray Tandi is now being used to attack Mayor Crisologo, who has nothing to do with it."

The lawyer said the mayor was "stunned" by the story that linked him to Califlores, known well in Abra for working for politicians and acting as their "local enforcer."

Cordero said it is "completely weird for the New People’s Army to link up with local thugs to perpetrate an ambush in which some of the victims are children."

She said that the supposed NPA commander who stopped Califlores from inflicting more harm on the victims, Procopio Tauro, alias "Ka Pyro," suffers from rheumatism and has bad legs.

He is also old, between 60 and 70, and it is strange how he could have led an ambush.

The NPA will laugh at the story being peddled by some parties, the lawyer said.
Cordero said, "The NPA does not need the support of any warlord or local goons to mount ambuscades."

The NPA command will naturally laugh at the tall tale that some quarters are propagating."

The lawyer said the police should investigate the ambush deeply, along with the merciless massacre of three poor farmers last February, the unsolved killings of many other people in Tineg by goons, and the murder of Crisologo’s wife. -- MB