NPA denies hand in Compostela mayor’s ambush-slay

DAVAO CITY, Philippines– The New People’s Army (NPA) yesterday denied any responsibility in Wednesday’s ambush-killing of Laak, Compostela Valley Mayor Reynaldo Navarro in Asuncion, Davao del Norte.

In a statement, Rigoberto Sanchez, spokesman of the NPA’s Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command (Merardo Arce Command), said, “Navarro’s track record did not make him a legitimate military target, thus no revolutionary punishment was executed against him.”

The NPA denial came even as it accused Navarro last week of being one of the so-called “Big 4” illegal loggers operating in Davao del Norte, Compostela Valley and Agusan del Sur. 

“While Navarro was part of the ‘Big 4’ in Agusan-Comval-Davao del Norte forests, the NPA has not considered him an enemy that warrants a standing order or a recipient of a death sentence,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez said Navarro, as a long-time politician whose area covered territories of the “people’s democratic government” in Compostela Valley, cooperated and in many ways, took actions that recognized the revolutionary cause.

Sanchez instead accused the Army’s 10th Infantry Division-Eastern Mindanao Command of agitating and conscripting Navarro’s lumad supporters to become part of the military’s Oplan Bayanihan anti-insurgency campaign. 

Meanwhile, authorities yesterday identified the two slain gunmen of Navarro. But Senior Superintendent Samuel Gandingan, Davao del Norte police director, could not say if the slain suspects, Nestor Toridez and Simeon Tata Roma, belonged to the NPA or an armed group operating in the province and Compostela Valley.

The two slain suspects, identified by San Isidro Mayor Arnel Sitoy as his constituents, were armed with high-powered firearms when they, along with four accomplices, shot it out with Navarro’s police escorts.

Toridez had no pending arrest warrant, while Roma had several from different courts in Davao del Norte for murder and robbery with homicide charges.

Gandingan said no one has so far claimed the remains of the two slain suspects.