Task Force Abra fails to dismantle private armies in Tineg town

Two police teams from Task Force Abra failed yesterday to dismantle a 28-man private army in two barangays in Tineg town, Abra.

In a report to Camp Crame, Senior Superintendent Eugene Martin, Task Force Abra commander, suspects that their targets in the hinterland barangays of Lanek and Naglibacan were informed of the impending police raid.

"The doors of our target personalities were locked from the outside," he said. "There are only women and children left in the barangays and the male residents are nowhere to be found."

The two barangays could only be reached by land, he added.

Meanwhile, Martin said he will order an investigation on allegations that his men unlawfully searched and ransacked 21 houses in Barangay Cagayanan.

Speaking on Catholic-run radio station dzPA, Martin said he has met with local businessmen, non-governmental organizations and other sectors of society to stress the role of task force members manning checkpoints in exit and entry points of Abra.

"We resolved issues they raised like the discourteous policemen, especially those asking personal questions," he said.

Not one of those in attendance complained that task force members are involved in abuses like extortion, he added.

Martin said participants in the meeting appreciated the presence of policemen in the far-flung barangays.

"They claimed that the situation in Abra is abnormal because there are no killings like in the past years, especially during the election period," he said.

Barangay officials led by Kagawada Anita Ci-o and Nestor Martinez, barangay secretary Amarilyn Batoon, and Lupon members Dulawen Limag and Cesario Viste accused some policemen of forcibly entering some houses without a search warrant on Jan. 14.

The policemen were irked when they found no one in most of the houses. According to them most residents were out tending to their rice fields and went to check their wild animal snares in the forests, Martin said.

The complainants also resented the policemen’s disregard for them as barangay officials because they never coordinated with them on the raid, a legal practice they are invoking as enshrined in the Local Government Code.

Martin said he will investigate the allegations of barangay officials as soon as his men arrived from their mission at their headquarters in Benguet.

"We expect the aggrieved party to file counter-charges to negate the accomplishments of the task force," she said.

Meanwhile, Task Force Bersamin is verifying reports that the alleged "triggerman" in the killing of Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin last Dec. 16, was himself killed on orders of the mastermind.

A police source said Dominador Barbosa was killed by a gun-for-hire.

Barbosa was among the three suspects identified by confessed lookout Rufino Panday as the alleged gunman who fired at Bersamin and his police bodyguard as they emerged from a wedding in Mount Carmel Church in Quezon City.

The other suspects are former La Paz town vice mayor Freddie Dupo and Sonny Taculao.

Meanwhile, police are investigating the involvement of an alleged former gun-for-hire in the killing of Bersamin.

Task Force Bersamin has placed under surveillance Nolie Lumbo, a resident of barangay Simon, Curimao, Ilocos Norte, who was arrested on Wednesday.

Police led by Inspector Romeo Acosta arrested Lumbo for illegal possession of firearms on orders of Judge Virgilio Macaraeg of Regional Trial Court, branch 18.

Lumbo was caught with a .45 caliber pistol in December last year.

Lumbo was a kagawad in his wife’s barangay, where he had relocated.

But some sources claimed Lumbo was attending a social function in Curimao town when Bersamin was shot in front of Mount Carmel Church in Quezon City.

"Lumbo was caught in video present during the social function," the source said.

Earlier, Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil, Ilocos region police commander, told reporters that guns-for-hire employed by warlords in the northern provinces usually come from Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur. — With Artemio Dumlao, Paolo Romero