Suspect in slay of 3 Besao hunters nabbed in Abra

TUBO, Abra -- The lone suspect in the murder here of three Agawa tribesmen from Besao, Mountain Province, was arrested by police last week.

At the regional poollice headquarters in Camp Dangwa, La Trinidad, Benguet, Brig. Gen. Israel Dickson, Cordillera police chief, said Marlon Bacalli Batuli, of Sitio Baclingayan, Tabacda, Tubo, Abra, was arrested Oct. 17 in Barangay Kili, Tubo, on the strength of a warrant of arrest for multiple murder issued by Judge Elizabeth G Bringas, Branch 58, Bucay, Abra.

Dickson said Batuli was the region’s top most wanted person.

He had gone into hiding after confessing to the Tubo mayor he killed Jansen Gabaen, Ronnie Macayba, and Pedro Sauyen.

“It was exactly three months after I hosted peace talks to de-escalate tensions affecting five barangays of Besao that the gruesome murder happened,” Dickson said.

The three men went fishing at a river near the village of Baclingayan, Tubo, but failed to return home after a week.

A search party from Agawa that sought the help of barangay officials in nearby Kili, Tubo found the shot, stabbed, and mutilated bodies last May 27 near the river.

The murders created an uproar among tribespeople in Agawa and nearby barangays of Gueday, Lacmaan, Ambagiw, and Tamboan.

The Agawa tribe had been feuding the Baclingayan tribe, who anticipated revenge attacks, and had recalled home their children studying in other municipalities of Abra and Mountain Province.

Dickson called the Provincial Peace and Order Council Chairmen of Abra and Mountain Province, the Municipal Peace and Order Council of Tubo and Besao, and the leadership of the BPOC’s and Council of Elders of the affected barangays to a peace meeting last July 16 at Camp Bado Dangwa.

The feuding barangays vowed to patch up their differences and vowed to help solve the murder of the three tribesmen and bring justice to their families.