NPA admits killing Cagayan town mayor for ‘espionage’

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines – The New People’s Army (NPA) has finally admitted responsibility for last Monday’s killing of Mayor Carlito Pentecostes Jr. of Gonzaga, Cagayan.

In a statement, the NPA’s West Cagayan Front accused Pentecostes of espionage or helping the military in the raid on a rebel camp in Gonzaga’s Tapal village in 2010 that left several guerrillas wounded.

Last Monday’s incident, according to the NPA, belied the military’s pronouncement that insurgency has been dismantled in northern Luzon.

“Last Monday’s execution of Mayor Pentecostes is a slap in the face of the military that has presumed we have already dissipated,” West Cagayan Front spokesperson Ester Falcon said in the statement in Filipino.

Earlier, Lt. Gen. Gregorio Catapang, Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command chief, doubted if the NPA staged the attack since northeastern Cagayan has been declared insurgency-free. Besides, he said, the manner by which the armed men staged the assault was not the NPA’s usual style.

In its statement, the NPA said its “people’s court” began deliberating Pentecostes’ fate in 2012 and that he was found “guilty” of espionage by eight of its nine members.

The NPA also accused Pentecostes of backing the provincial government-sanctioned black sand mining project in Gonzaga, which reportedly has the biggest deposits of the precious ore among Cagayan’s coastal towns.

Despite the NPA’s admission, Pentecostes’ family insisted that the killing has something to do with politics. They also belied the insurgents’ accusations against him.   

Pentecostes’ elder brother Edward said they are seeking the assistance of the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a separate investigation into his brother’s “very brutal” killing.

Mayor Darwin Tobias of adjacent Santa Ana town also expressed doubts that Pentecostes was killed because of his pro-mining stance, saying the rebels themselves also “earn” from the extraction of black sand in the province.

Pentecostes, 60, was shot dead by two of eight Armalite-wielding men who went near him while he was presiding over last Monday’s flag-raising ceremony at the municipal hall grounds. He reportedly sustained at least nine gunshot wounds in the head and upper body.

Earlier, Senior Superintendent Gregorio Lim, Cagayan police director, said murder, robbery and arson charges were being readied against two NPA commanders, David Soriano, alias Ka Colly, and Rolando Ibis, alias Ka Pearson, who reportedly led the attack. The two are said to be ranking officers of the NPA’s Henry Abraham Command operating in Cagayan and Apayao.

The two, according to Lim, were identified in the footage of the closed-circuit television camera installed at the Gonzaga town hall grounds.