The citys largest district of over 40,000 people, Paquibato has become a virtual garrison these days. People cannot move around the place without identification cards bearing the signature of soldiers.
On the veranda of the village hall of barangay Mabuhay, government soldiers mounted an M60 machine gun, a menacing reminder among its residents of the silent war in their midst. In a place called Crossing Hasil towards the border with Panabo, soldiers at a checkpoint stopped all vehicles for inspection.
Earlier this month, a fuming Mayor Rodrigo Duterte had declared he will keep his hands off Paquibato, raising fear that rights of civilians might be violated in the resulting armed clashes between government and rebel forces in the area.
Paquibato has long been considered battleground between the military and the Communist New Peoples Army. Its hinterlands have been a stronghold of NPA leader Leoncio Pitao, the elusive Kumander Parago whose 20 year old daughter, abducted and killed on March 4 in Davao city, was buried last week.
Duterte has kept good rapport with the rebels through the years, a policy that relatively kept peace in the area in the past but which apparently clashed with armys thrust to crush the 40-year old insurgency through military might. Read on.
New Peoples Army (NPA) leader Leoncio Pitao, alias Kumander Parago, pins down four members of the military intelligence group (MIG) behind the killing of her 20-year old daughter Rebelyn. Photo taken inside Parago’s operational command in the hinterlands in Davao City. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
Commander Parago, the nom de guerre of Leoncio Pitao, leader of New Peoples Armys (NPA) First Pulang Bagani Command in Southern Mindanao, is grieving for the loss of his daughter.
Where journalists found him in Paquibato, a mountainous district at the outskirts of the city, Parago could have easily come down and visit the wake of his daughter. Rebelyn Pitao was abducted on March 4, her body found dumped in an irrigation canal in Carmen town, Davao del Norte a day later.
But just as how hard it is for the military to climb the mountains of Paquibato, so it is for Parago to come down.
He is the most wanted rebel leader in Southern Mindanao. Major General Leo Joggy Fojas, the former area command chief of 10th Infantry (Agila) Division of the Philippine Army, pronounced last year that they would be able to capture the rebel leader by the end of 2008.
A new commanding officer has now replaced Fojas. But Parago is still very much around, leading one NPA tactical offensive after another. Read on.
The early warning system is part of the contingency plan initiated by Dole to deal with the projected increase in unemployment if companies will have a hard time dealing with the crisis. It will allow the government to draw up possible employment and livelihood options to workers affected, said Lawyer Jalilo dela Torre, Dole regional director.
The Task Force Davao (TFD) has organized a 4, 000-strong barangay defense system (BDS) to counter the growing number of Communist guerrillas operating in the outskirts of the city, Col. Oscar Lactao, TFD commander, said. Lactao said the military gathered local residents and organized them into a BDS to counter the growing presence of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Toril district. He said the military recruited one “volunteer” from each household for the barangay defense system.
A witness takes oath to tell the truth during the public hearing conducted by the House Committee on Human Rights in August. Victims and witnesses from the Mindanao regions presented their accounts on the human rights abuses allegedly committed by the government troops. Rep. Lorenzo Tanada III, chairperson and Rep. Satur Ocampo, House Deputy Minority Leader, were present at the hearing. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
The best deterrent to crime is when the wheels of justice, no matter how slow, really move and convict people who are guilty. This is the statement made by Lorenzo Erin Taada IIII, chair of the House of Representatives’ committee on human rights, after a two-day hearing for the Mindanao regions of the ongoing Congressional inquiry on extrajudicial killings.
The young religious leaders, representing Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Muslim, Sikh, Zoroastrian and other religions, are calling for the resumption of the peace talks between the government and the MILF, which collapsed after the failed signing of the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) in August.
