Kalinga tribe blamed for mayor, ex-mayor’s ambush

La Trinidad, Benguet – A fierce Kalinga tribe is being blamed as behind Rizal town mayor Chris Marc’s and his father Marcelo’s ambush on Wednesday noon. This strengthens an earlier theory by the Cordillera police that the ambushers were avenging the death of nine “squatters” who fought policemen during the demolition carnage at the former Madrigal Estate in Malapiat, Rizal on June 25 where 10 policemen were also hurt.

Although no particular personality was named yet by the police, Kalinga police chief Senior Superintendent Severino Cruz said, the ambushers were from the “Butbut” tribe.

The town’s chief of police – Senior Inspector Renato Cairel, five of his men – Senior Police Officers 2 Gabriel Desay, Sergio Ladaga, Police Officers 3 Cesar Abagan, Randel Lacuesta and Police Officer 2 Felix Turingan were also injured.

Civilians Rodel Boromeo, Francis Durian and Roger Domingo, all wards of the Dela Cruzes, were also injured.

The Dela Cruzes and their three wards were aboard a Hyundai Starex van on a convoy with a policemen Wednesday noon when unidentified gunmen waylaid them in Barangay Liwan, also in Rizal.  The Dela Cruzes according to Tabuk City Mayor Camilo Lammawin were going home at around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday coming from a meeting in continuing efforts to resolve the 54-year-old former Madrigal Estate land dispute that resulted in a bloody carnage on June 25 when the ambushers opened fire. Policemen were able to return fire killing one of the supposed attackers later named as Tiwang Sabawil, a resident of Bgy. Lacnog, Tabuk City. Authorities found from Sabawil one M14 rifle with magazine. Two spent shells of gauge 12 shotgun, 10 spent shells of cal. 30 garand rifle, three spent shells of M14 rifle, one hand grenade pin, two spent shells for a cal. 5.56 rifle (M16) were also found at the shooting scene.

 Just after the ambush, Cordillera police suspected revenge as a consideration for the ambush, Superintendent Joseph Adnol, community relations officer of the Cordillera police command said.

Intelligence reports, police claimed, confirmed that members of the Butbut tribe plan to attack the government forces at any opportune time.

But tribal peoples originally from Tinglayan town in upper Kalinga are considered as one of the fiercest.  They are also considered as a major tribe in the province compared to other “minority” tribes.

But the “squatters” who stood their ground and fiercely fought policemen on June 25 are not all from the Butbut tribe, but are from other tribes in upper Kalinga.

Adnol also dismissed any involvement of the Lejo Cawilan Command of the NPA in Kalinga who earlier blamed the former mayor and his son for allegedly manipulating local laws in favor of the demolition of the “squatters”.

NPA rebels also claimed that the Dela Cruz clan have vested interests in the lands while a supposed area were also offered by the Dela Cruz family to the San Miguel Corp. for a cassava and Bt corn plantation.

The former mayor belied the NPA’s claim and even the DAR-Cordillera vouched that the Dela Cruzes have no interests in the former Madrigal Estate covering at least four barangays in Rizal town.

The elder Dela Cruz earlier cited a Supreme Court decision in the 90’s that granted absolute ownership to original settlers in the area should have resolved the issue, but unscrupulous individuals began “speculating” in the area to the prejudice of original settlers.

The former mayor, in an effort to implement the SC decision, initiated efforts during his administration to demolish illegal occupants although he admitted that the tribal peoples there were also victims of these “land speculators” who took advantage of their innocence.

The problem lingered on to the point of the bloody carnage on June 25 (in fact already the third demolition) that could have been avoided, claimed on Dela Cruz (who was still the mayor then), if national agencies earlier constituting an inter-agency task force finished their job.

Members of the inter-agency task force however argued against the former mayor.  Janet Zamudio, an inter-agency task force secretariat member claimed that after the 2004 survey that should have resolved the tenurial issues, the task force naturally “slept” because their mandate was finished.

After the June 25 carnage, however, the defunct task force was resurrected to look at the issue again and finally nail down the conflict.

Tabuk City Mayor Lammawin, president of the Kalinga chapter of the League of Municipalities (LMP), appealed to the national agencies and even to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to look into the matter once more and resolve the issue once and for all.

“Shall we wait for more lives to be lost? Shall we wait for another mayor again to be ambushed,?” Lammawin lamented as he cited the already 19 lives lost and almost mayor Dela Cruz’s “who wanted only to implement the SC decision.”

Lammawin, like former mayor Dela Cruz also blamed conflicting policies of national government agencies like the NCIP, DENR and DAR on land ownership as also contributing to the unending conflict in the area.

“Nobody wants this situation,” he said.

“We appeal that the issue now be resolved by the agencies,” Lammawin said, as he taunted earlier tact of national government agencies pointing to the local government unit as responsible in the resolution.

If the issue is not resolved, Lammawin warned, ‘an inter-tribal conflict will emerge from the situation.’