NPA wants to return slain mayor’s money

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – New People’s Army (NPA) is seeking to return P25,000 they recovered from Mayor Dario Otaza of Loreto, Agusan del Sur, whom they snatched and executed along with his son Daryl in Butuan City on Oct. 19.

The NPA has asked the help of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte for the return of the money to Otaza’s family.

NPA spokesperson Rigoberto Sanchez sent Duterte a letter urging him to help return the money.

Duterte committed to help and promised to find a way to reach out to the Otaza family.

The mayor and his son were seized by men who posed as agents of the National Bureau of Investigation at their residence in Butuan City, where the NPA also reportedly took 10 firearms.

The guerrillas are reportedly mandated to return any personal belonging without military value in compliance with the NPA’s code of discipline and the rules and customs of war as stipulated in the Geneva Convention.

The NPA has admitted killing the Otazas, who were found riddled with bullets at a coconut plantation in the outskirts of the city.

Buried

The Otazas were buried on Wednesday at a private cemetery in Butuan City.

Thousands, including members of the indigenous peoples groups from the province and Agusan del Norte, joined the funeral march and the burial at the Uraya private cemetery in Barangay Libertad, according to Col. Rolando Dumawa, chief of the Army’s 26th Infantry Battalion.

Among those who spoke during the ceremony was provincial tribal chieftain Datu Makhinlo Gubat, who urged his fellow tribesmen to sustain the peace advocacy of the late mayor.

Police filed robbery and kidnapping with murder charges against 19 rebels led by Rene Catarata, alias Hector Tindugan or Ka Rene and Ka Dodong, chief of the NPA Guerilla Front 34.  – With Jaime Laude