‘Why is the military coddling them?’

By CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS
of Mindanews

2nd of three parts

TANDAG City, Surigao del Sur––Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar  brought to the attention of the senators that on Sept. 29, or just two days before the start of the probe here, Marcial Belandres, one of the leaders of the paramilitary group refererred to as “Magahag-Bagani,” his wife Gaga and their children, boarded Cebu Pacific flight 5J92 in Butuan for Manila, where  “they were met (at the airport) by the military.”

“Now my question is,” Odchimar asked, “if there is no unholy alliance between the military and Bagani… why is the military coddling (them) if there is no connivance between the Bagani and the military?”

In response to Odchimar’s queries, Brig. Gen. Joselito Kakilala, chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Civil Relations Service, said that based on their data, Belandres “surrendered Aug. 23-25” this year, during the Peace Caravan that sent off the troops to conduct peace and development activities in the municipalities.

Kakila said Belandres “went through the process” that was “vetted by different  local agencies in Surigao del Sur” before the formal surrender.

He said Belandres was in Manila “to speak about the truth on the dynamics” of the situation “and why this “inter-clan conflict” happened and how the NPA is allegedly destroying the Lumad community.

Kakilala said the NPA in the past gave the Datus a free hand to “engage with the different corporations engaged in logging and mining”  on the “sharing between how much money they get from these companies” but that this agreement was revised by the NPA sometime in 2004 and 2005, with the NPA, not the Datus, already negotiating with the companies.

He said the Datus “resented that latest agreement” where the NPA negotiates on their behalf.

Han-ayan residents at the evacuation center told Mindanews that vested interest groups out to exploit the vast mineral deposits in their ancestral domain in Andap Valley could be the reason behind the deployment of soldiers and the paramility in their area.

Kakilala also said Belandres “has no case at all.”

Sen. Aqulino Pimentel III had earlier asked Chief Supt. Vert Chavez, acting chief of the PNP in Caraga, on the status of the case after the wife of Alameda testified.

He said the case was “still under investigation due to lack of witnesses.” Chavez said Mrs. Alameda’s Oct. 2014 affidavit did not name Belandres as among the killers.  He said it was the first time he heard the wife name Belandres.

The senator proposed to Chavez to have a supplemental affidavit prepared now that the wife has named Belandres.

But even as Belandres may not have been named in Mrs. Alameda’s affidavit, he was one of two leaders of the paramilitary group named in the Jan. 30, 2015 “Agreement on the return of the Evacuees to barangays San Isidro and St. Christine” in Lianga town,  where representatives of the provincial, municipal and barangay governments, as well as church leaders, military and police officials and representatives of the “bakwits” agreed to “disarm and dismantle” the paramilitary group and to file charges against them immediately.

Col. Alexander Macario, chief of the 401st Brigade, signed on behalf of the military while Sr. Superintendent Narciso Verdadero, provincial director of the Philipine National Police (PNP) in Surigao del Sur, signed on behalf of the PNP.

Campos, one of the three persons killed on September 1, was among the signatories.

A similar agreement on Nov. 3, 2014,  stated that charges against the paramilitary group leader’s Marcos Bocales and Calpit be filed.

When the Senate probe resumed Friday morning, Odchimar, who spoke on behalf of the clergy and sisters of the Diocese of Tandag, and “I presume I also carry the voice of my brothers in the Christian denominations, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente represented here by five bishops,” said they would like to “share the demands” of Gov. Johnny Pimentel that the accused in the Sept. 1 killing of Emerito Samarca, Dionel Campos and Bello Sinzo – and other killings, “be brought to justice.”

“In connection with this, I would like to ask the question. Does the mere fact of the surrender exonerate them from crimes committed before their surrender?,” Odchimar asked, referring to Belandres.

“We ask respectifully ask (for) the disarmament and disbandment of these armed groups,” he said.

The Bishop also read a faded, undated document in Cebuano, purportedly from the Tribal Territorial Defense Force  (TTDF – O Bagani), stating the Bagani was organized in 2006 “to defend our ancestral domain and to destroy the mass base of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army-National Deomcratic Front in the hinterlands.”

The statement called on all members of the Manobo tribe to stand up and fight and “reclaim our ancestral domain from the hands of the oppressive CPP/NPA/NDF.”