Fatal ambush of vice mayor linked to ancestral land issues — tribal leaders

COTABATO CITY — Local leaders are certain that the fatal ambush of the vice mayor of South Upi in Maguindanao del Sur last Friday is related to his involvement in resisting heavily armed outsiders from grabbing Teduray ancestral lands in the municipality.

South Upi Vice Mayor Roldan Benito and his security aide, Weng Marcos, both killed in the ambush in Barangay Pandan in South Upi, belonged to the Teduray tribe that has government-recognized ancestral domains in the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur, both in the Bangsamoro region, and in Sultan Kudarat in Region 12.

South Upi Mayor Reynalbert Insular and Letecio Datuwata, a tribal chieftain, separately told reporters on Tuesday that they are certain that Benito was killed for his having led followers in resisting armed non-Tedurays claiming ownership of vast swaths of lands in their ancestral domains.

Non-Teduray gunmen from lowlands in Maguindanao del Sur have killed more than 20 Tedurays and burned more than 30 houses in one attack after another in hinterlands in South Upi in the past four years.

“He was a brave Teduray leader. We do not see any political angle in the ambush that resulted in his death,” Datuwata, an official of their Timuay Justice and Governance Organization, said.

Members of the Teduray tribal councils in North Upi and Datu Blah Sinsuat, both in Maguindanao del Norte, and in Lebak, Kalamansig and Palimbang in Sultan Kudarat have called on the police and military units in South Upi to work together in identifying the killers of Benito and Marcos for them to be prosecuted in court.

Datuwata, citing records that they have gathered from local government units, the police and military, said more than 60 Teduray and Teduray-Lambingian leaders in Central Mindanao, known for their advocacy against dispossession of tribespeople of their lands by intruders, had been killed one after another since 2018.

The now third-termer mayor Insular, chairperson of their multi-sector Municipal Peace and Order Council, said Benito and his companions were in a pick-up truck, on their way to a secluded area in Barangay Pandan from the town proper of South Upi when men armed with assault rifles, positioned along the route, opened fire as they got close.

Benito and Marcos both died on the spot. The attack left the vice mayor's wife, Analyn, and a minor wounded.