PPC mayoral bet, five others killed in Negros Oriental ambush

Antonieta Lopez And Roel Pareño

Two local candidates of the People Power Coalition (PPC) in Canlaon City, Negros Oriental and four others were killed when suspected communist guerrillas ambushed them after a campaign sortie last Friday afternoon, police said.

This developed as a lone assailant gunned down the former mayor of Malangas, Zamboanga Sibugay also the other day in Bonifacia, Misamis Occidental.

Negros Oriental police said Vice Mayor Jose "Ondo" Cardenas, PPC mayoral candidate in Canlaon City, and his sister, re-electionist councilor Jessica Cardenas, were declared dead on arrival at a hospital in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.

Also slain in the ambush were Lakas campaign manager Hospicio Condes Jr., driver Calvin Neri, Ricardo Oca and Telesforo Fajardo.

Vice mayoral candidate Nick Malunes, Jimmy Clerigo and Ramil Salazar were wounded in the attack.

Evangeline Marquez, wife of Bacolod police chief Superintendent Amado Marquez who is seeking a council seat, survived with bruises.

Canlaon City is one of the places which the Commission on Elections has declared as "areas of concern" due to sightings of armed men there, believed to be New People’s Army guerrillas.

Cardenas’ party was on their way to the city proper after a political rally in Barangay Budlasan when they were waylaid, PO3 Bernabe Rubio of the Negros Oriental police said.

Superintendent Mohiden Balimbingan, Canlaon City police chief, has fielded his men to go after the ambushers, said to be numbering 12. Troopers of the 66th Infantry Battalion under Lt. Col. Rafael Altamira reinforced the police team.

Freedom fighter

Cardenas earned a reputation of being a "freedom fighter" during the Marcos years. Former President Corazon Aquino appointed him mayor in 1986, a position he held until 1998.

Unable to seek another term, Cardenas ran for vice mayor in 1998 and won. He was seeking a mayoral comeback in the May elections.

Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Fredesvindo Covarrubias, chief of the military’s Civil Relations Group for Mindanao, said Jessie Postero, 51, former mayor of Malangas, Zamboanga Sibugay, was en route from Ozamiz City to Pagadian City when he was assassinated.

Investigation showed that Postero was aboard a van when the gunman, who was seated beside him, pulled out a caliber .45 pistol upon reaching Barangay Bolinsang in Bonifacio town and shot him in the head, Covarrubias said.

The assassin then casually walked away and boarded a Kawasaki motorcycle.

Two weeks ago, a mayor and a former mayor were killed in Agusan del Sur by suspected communist rebels. The police chief of Surigao City was gunned down early this week.

Liquidation plot

In Pampanga, a captured suspected member of the communist faction Rebolusyonaryong Hukbo ng Bayan (RHB) admitted yesterday a rebel plot to liquidate a mayoral candidate in San Luis, Pampanga.

The RHB member, Fernando Dimacali, told reporters that he heard his comrades planning the ambush of candidate Jay Sagum before they encountered government troops in Barangay San Isidro last Friday.

Dimacali said his comrades were supposed to kill Sagum Friday morning when he was scheduled to campaign in area.

But they encountered the soldiers before they could carry out their plan. Firefight ensued, and three guerrillas, identified only as Ka Sonny, Milan and Jorge, were slain.

Soldiers captured Dimacali and seized five Armalite and one M-14 rifles, handgrenades, grenade launchers and thousands of bullets in the encounter.

The RHB is a breakaway faction of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA responsible for extortion and other criminal activities in Pampanga’s northeastern towns.

Extortion

In the Ilocos region, communist rebels and extortion groups are demanding high-powered firearms and cash from mayors, lest they suffer the fate of Sta. Lucia Mayor Teodoro Hernaez who, along with three others, was slain during a recent campaign rally.

The threats have prompted the mayors to seek police and military assistance. Senior Superintendent Arturo Lomibao, Region 1 police director, told the politicians that they might become milking cows and regular income sources of these lawless groups if they give in to their demands.

In a letter, a certain Ilustre Servando warned a mayor in the second district of Ilocos Sur to pay his "balance" and give him a caliber .45 pistol in three days, or else he would be liquidated.

A first district mayor also told police that the Sacarias Agatep Command demanded P100,000 and two high-powered firearms from him so he could campaign freely in its supposed territories. — With Ric Sapnu and Myds Supnad