Judge who denied Diwalwal miners’ petition shot dead

DAVAO CITY — A Compostela Valley judge, who earlier had denied a petition by small-scale miners against a halt to their operations at Mt. Diwalwal, was shot dead by three men early yesterday morning, police said.

Regional Trial Court Judge Eugenio Valles, 62, was jogging at dawn outside his home in Barangay Sta. Maria, Nabunturan town when the three men fired at him with caliber .45 pistols, said Superintendent Jaime Norente, provincial police director.

Norente said the men made sure that the judge was dead before they escaped. "When we examined his (Valles’) body, we found five shots in the head," he said.

Police believe that the killers had waited for the judge to pass by on his regular jogging route.

Valles had reportedly received death threats but rejected an offer for security escorts, police said.

Superintendent Paterno Orduña, regional police intelligence chief, said probers are looking at various angles in the killing but believe it may have something to do with the mining conflict at Mt. Diwalwal.

Last February, Valles denied the petition of small-scale miners for a temporary restraining order against the directive of Monkayo Mayor Joel Brilliantes stopping their mining activities.

The mayor’s order, issued last December, took effect on Feb. 26. But a 60-day moratorium was imposed on March 26 after the miners barricaded the Bincungan Bridge in Carmen, North Cotabato.

"We are going to investigate the possible involvement of several people in the mining sector — those who could have made pronouncements of a possible bloodshed — and others, including (communist) rebels," Orduña said.

The miners, belonging to the Monkayo Integrated Small-Scale Miners Association (MISSMA), have been up in arms against Brilliantes’ cease-and-desist order, accusing him of conflict of interest for being an alleged major partner of the Southeast Mining Corp. (SEM).

MISSMA and SEM are locked in a case pending with the Supreme Court, with the company claiming a 4,999-hectare area at Mt. Diwalwal, including the 729 hectares occupied by the small-scale miners.

In an open letter to President Arroyo, Diwalwal barangay captain Tito Franco sought her intervention since the moratorium on Brilliantes’ order will soon lapse.

"We have been seeking for a peaceful resolution to the legal struggle to ultimately get a piece of land to mine. We do not ask for much. All we are asking is for the government to absolutely legalize our mining activities in the area," he said. — With Jaime Laude