PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Sept. 8, 2012) – Security forces have captured 2 men accused of murdering a son of a tribal leader during a raid in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga del Sur.
Policemen and soldiers captured Coloy Entag, 26, and Marlon Luao, 25, who were both implicated in the killing of 12-year old Jordan Manda in the town of Bayog.
The boy’s father, Timuay Luciano Manda, 34, also a village chieftain in Conacon, was also wounded in the September 4 attack in the town of Bayog.
Luao was arrested following a chase in the town while his accomplice had been nabbed in a hideout also in Bayog. Several weapons had been seized by the police from Luao who were both positively identified by Manda as their attackers, a police report said.
The town’s police chief Inspector Erol Alejo, Jr. did not give any statement and ignored telephone calls from journalists who were reporting on the Friday arrest of the Entag and Luao.
Manda was bringing his son to school when six gunmen ambushed them near the village of Conacon. The motive of the attack is still unknown.
But Manda, who belongs to the indigenous Subanon tribe, strongly denied published reports which branded him as an anti-mining advocate. He said he did not release any statement and that nobody interviewed him either personally, by phone or text message.
The Alyansa Tigil Mina, an anti-mining group, in a news statement sent to media, quoted Manda as saying: “In my effort to assert our rights and to protect our people and ancestral domain, my beloved son was sacrificed. It is very painful and I thirst for justice. I vow to continue my struggle in order not to make my son’s death in vain. I need your support in this most trying time of my life as a father and a leader.”
Manda also denied making such statement to the group. “While I appreciate the sympathy of some groups about what happened and their condemnation to the assailants, I cannot afford to make this matter as their avenue for expressing their anti-mining advocacy to which I do not subscribe.”
“To set the record straight, I am not anti-mining. I am instead anti-illegal mining. I am a government official – a barangay captain of Barangay Conacon, Municipality of Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur – and I swore to uphold the law. We have our laws in mining and other environmental laws. On the other hand, I am calling the attention of those who mine of those who are planning to mine in our ancestral lands without valid or legal documents to stop now. You only bring trouble in our peaceful community and destruction to our environment,” Manda said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Manda called on those who are into illegal mining activities in Bayog, but are not from the town, to stop exploiting the indigenous people leave now.
He also appealed to President Benigno Aquino to stop the illegal mining activities in Bayog town. “There must be something wrong why the law cannot be enforced effectively in our place. Let this tragic incident be a wake-up call to all government officials concerned,” he said. (Mindanao Examiner)
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