Tribal vendetta seen after slay of 9 men in bloody encounter

By DEXTER A. SEE, MIKE GUIMBATAN JR. and AD

RIZAL, Kalinga -- Tribal vendetta is looming following the killing of nine tribesmen and wounding of eight policemen in an encounter between law enforcers and tribesmen during a demolition operation here at Sitio Malapiat, Barangay San Pascual afternoon of June 25.

This, as police said they haven’t finished investigation on the incident or found evidence if the New People’s Army was involved in the 10-hour firefight.

Provincial and town officials appealed for sobriety among affected tribes saying vengeance should not be pursued but the law must take its course on who is liable.

In Baguio, Chief Supt. Raul Gonzales, director of the Police Regional Office in the Cordillera, during a media forum, revealed eight suspects have been arrested and appropriate charges were being prepared for filling against them.

The five suspects were named as Felipe Sulibat, Delton Mallagay, Lopez Marmag, Caspar Cayabo and Stallion Tinnong.
Police identified the fatalities as Pedro Oliba, Felimo Oliba, Conrado Ordona, Delfin Madayag, Juan Attang, Bangi Baccoy, Abbuc, Tayaan, Rufino Cullaba and Sabawil Agyao, all settlers of the Malapiat area of San Pascual.

Both Olibas and Madayag are from Mabaca, Pinukpuk town; Attang from Ababaan, Balbalan, Ordona from Bulanao, Tabuk; while Baccoy, Tayaan and Agyao are from, Butbut, Tinglayan.

Also wounded were Gayyad Addwi, Alib Balas and Gaspar Cayabo.

Some of those wounded from the government side are from Kalinga although it was not established if they belonged to tribes of Kalinga or Mountain Province, which share a border.

It was reported that elements of the Army’s 21st Infantry Battalion under Lt. Col. Roxas, Police Regional Mobile Group under Insp. Nelson Nelmida, and Kalinga Provincial Police Office composed of inspectors Bobby Glen Ganipac, Charles Domallig, Renato Cairel and Leo Guay were fired at by armed men who were positioned in foxholes on a road leading to the demolition area.

The policemen and soldiers were providing security to the demolition team of the Rizal municipal government in connection with the enforcement of Sangguniang Bayan Resolution No. 2007-20 to demolish illegal structures in the area.

Investigation showed that the group of Ganipac and Nelmida were patrolling the area when they were fired upon by the still unidentified men, hitting Ganipac in the right hand and right leg and Nelmida in the neck.

When the group of Guay went to find out the source of gunfire, they were also fired upon by the same group.

Wounded were SPO1 Reynaldo Villanueva, SPO1 Romeo Duguiawe, SPO1 Franklin Narag, PO3 Claro Aquino, PO2 Noel Tumbali, PO1 Basiag, PO1 Ramon Mamanteo, and Guay.

The victims were taken to the Juan Duyan District Hospital in Rizal, Kalinga for treatment.

Guay and Nelmida were evacuated to the Cagayan Valley Regional Hospital in Carig, Cagayan where they underwent operation. The other wounded lawmen were evacuated to Kalinga Provincial Hospital.

The assailants were ordered to surrender but they refused and kept firing on the law enforcers, police said.

The firefight lasted until 5 p.m., resulting in the killing of nine of the men.

Found at the crime scene were two M16 rifles with short magazine and live ammunition, one US Carbine SNR 617245 with one magazine and three live ammunition, two long home-made shotguns with two live bullets in its chamber, one short home-made shotgun, one hand grenade and two empty shells of gauge 12 cartridges.

The cadavers of the slain men were brought to Carbonel funeral parlor for identification and autopsy.

It was also disclosed that though one of the injured police officers, Insp. Leo Guay, was earlier reported to be in critical condition after the actual ambush, he was pronounced out of danger.

According to another police source, the ambush and firefight between the armed Kalinga residents and government forces was the result of a protracted conflict involving a vast tract of land reportedly owned by the family of Sen. Maria Ana Consuelo ‘Jamby’ Madrigal.

According to Mayor Marcela dela Cruz of Rizal, Kalinga in an interview, he was only implementing the anti-squatting law and that there was no political motive involved in issuing the order to demolish the houses of the affected residents.

In Baguio, Senior Supt. Arni Dean Emock, regional police spokesman said police “were just enforcing the law when fired upon,” saying it was farfetched revenge killings could erupt between the tribes of both groups of illegal settlers and policemen.

The casualties from the side of the attackers belonged to the upper Kalinga tribes, described as “fierce” in their native land who still adhere to the ethnic concept of justice that when blood is spilled from one of them, it must be repaid with blood.

Emock said most policemen who secured the demolition crew arrived at the site with a town council resolution to evict the squatters are from Kalinga towns where there is a strong sense of tribal membership.

Emock said police want the tribal angle set aside, saying “those killed did the offense in disregard of the law.”

Kalinga police director Senior Supt. Severino Cruz said tension has died down although they were on guard.

Rizal is a gateway to Tabuk City, capital of Kalinga province.

Tabuk in recent years has been known as the arena of warring Kalinga tribes whenever conflicts arise. It is where the “buso” (vendetta killing) occurs because different kinds of people converge in the capital town.

Tabuk mayor Camilo Lammawin said there have been “painful” events in the past killings that gave the city “national fame”, including the slaying of Vice Gov. Rommel Diasen in Barangay Magnao on Black Saturday last April.

Self-confessed kiler Joel Melod admitted it was vendetta for the Maducayon tribe’s slaying of regional Trial Court Judge Milnar Lammawin and Melod were with the Magnao tribe.

Other vendetta as well as mysterious killings have also occurred in the past, and ,most of them unsolved.

Lammawin added squatting in Rizal, which has long been a problem, must end.

Earlier, Supt. Gonzales said Monday’s carnage was an offshoot of a long-running dispute over the 2, 934- hectare Madrigal agricultural estate.

The Supreme Court ruled that a 533-hectare section of the estate is an ancestral land and ordered owners to return it to the original Kalinga inhabitants.

The government handed over the ancestral land to 127 families from three Kalinga clans in December 2004, but other Kalinga clans have since moved in with guns and settled in parts of the disputed property.

Sen. Jamby Madrigal, whose family once owned the estate, said she would investigate the matter in her capacity as chairperson of the Senate committee on Cultural communities when the 14th Congress opens.

“We must not allow such blatant disregard for human rights to go unpunished. Nine lives were lost. Those responsible for this action must be held accountable,” said the senator, who told reporters in Manila that the property was formerly part of her grandfather Don Vicente Madrigal’s Estate in Kalinga “before it was taken over by the government.