Two militants found dead in Cagayan

By Ronron
April 4, 2007

Two militant leaders in Cagayan province were found dead on Wednesday morning along a river in Lallo town.

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) spokesman Carl Ala said Arthur Orpilla and Dionisio Battag, both 50 years old and officers of KMP and Anakpawis, were found with stab wounds and gunshot wounds, respectively, in their bodies at around 8 am yesterday.

Their bodies, Ala said, were discovered by vendors along the Cagayan River near the Magapit Bridge.

Ala said the two were allegedly abducted last March 27 by unidentified men believed to be members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Orpilla and Battag are residents of Barangay Bagunot in Baggao town of said province.

Contacted by phone, the Region II Police Office said it has yet to receive an official report about the incident from the Cagayan Police Provincial Office.

But already, Philippine National Police (PNP) Task Force USIG commander Chief Supt. Geary Barias said yesterday that he has ordered the mobilization of “all resources and personnel of the Regional Task Force USIG in Cagayan Valley to lead the investigation into the deaths” of Orpilla and Battag.

Barias said the probe will be in coordination with the Regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Office, the Crime Laboratory, the Intelligence community and the local police units.

He said he will fly to Cagayan tomorrow “to confer with authorities of the Police Regional Office II under Chief Supt. Ameto Tolentino.”

“I will also take the opportunity to talk to the victims’ colleagues form the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas to possibly get more leads and information that will help us inn the investigation,” Barias said.

Barias surmised that is possible Orpilla and Battag were killed somewhere else, but their bodies were abandoned at the site were they were found yesterday.

“The PNP Task Force USIG condemns in the strongest terms the slaying of Arthur Orpilla and Dionisio Battad,” Barias said.

“Let me assure the victims’ families and their colleagues of swift police action to identify and prosecute those behind this dastardly murder,” he added.

Ala was quick to blame the killing to the military, he even identified the Philippine Army’s 17th Infantry Battalion headed by a certain 2Lt. Johnny Calob as the culprit behind the shooting to death of Battad.

“The AFP cannot really stop attacking our ranks, even at this time of the Lenten season. They don’t care even a bit. This looks like the birthday gift of the death squad to Gloria,” Ala said, referring to the President.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who will celebrate her 60th birthday today (Thursday), has been accused by militant groups to have sanctioned the spate of killings of militants and journalists in the country so she could hold on to power.

She has denied the allegation. In May last year, she created the TF USIG to investigate said killings./DMS