DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / May 28, 2014) – A southern Philippine town mayor accused by communist rebels as behind illegal logging activities was killed by gunmen in ambush Wednesday in Davao del Norte province, security officials said.
Officials said Mayor Reynaldo Navarro, of Laak town in Compostela Valley province, who was travelling with his group when gunmen attacked them near the village of Sagayen in Asuncion town. Several others were wounded in the attack.
“Mayor Navarro was killed in the ambush,” said Captain Alberto Caber, a spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command, adding soldiers from the 60th Infantry Battalion were sent to the area to help the local police force in tracking down the ambushers.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion fell heavily on the New People’s Army rebels who previously threatened the politician – along with two other active police officers and a retired policeman – for his alleged involvement in illegal logging activities in Compostela Valley and Agusan del Sur and Davao del Norte.
“Thus, in the face of brazen abuse of power and wanton disregard of the environmental preservation, the NPA perseveres in imposing its total log ban campaign and carrying out punitive sanctions against the Armed Forces and the big logging lords.”
“To protect the remaining forest covers, campaign for reforestation, stop abusive large-scale logging, and secure the livelihood of the masses through sustainable communal farming, the NPA Sub-regional Command strongly enforces its total log ban policy,” said Aris Francisco, a rebel spokesman.
Just this month, rebels captured a government soldier, Corporal Rogelio Rosales, of the 60th Infantry Battalion, for protecting illegal logging in Davao del Norte’s Kapalong town. He was eventually freed to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who negotiated with the NPA for the safe release of the soldier.
Rosales, who yielded illegal drugs during his capture, was eventually removed by military service after he admitted using drugs during a routine debriefing shortly after his release.
Last month, the NPA arrested Sergeant Jeric Bucio Curay, a member of the 72nd Infantry Battalion, at a rebel checkpoint in Laak town. He was released also to Duterte two weeks later.
The rebels, who are fighting for a separate state in the country, also threatened to attack mining companies in Mindanao, especially those engage in open-pit and destructive mining practices, and those that encroach in ancestral domain of indigenous communities in the southern region. (Mindanao Examiner)
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