Murdered Philippine rebel leader's daughter laid to rest

At least 3,000 people joined the funeral march of the 20-year daughter of New People’s Army rebel leader Leoncio Pitao, also known as Commander Parago, in Davao City in the southern Philippines on Saturday, March 14, 2009. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and former Bayan Muna Representative Joel Virador were also spotted among the huge crowd that paid their last respect. The woman’s family blamed the military for the brutal murder. Her father linked 11 military intelligence agents in the murder. Rebelyn Pitao is cremated. (AKP Images / Keith Bacongco and Ruby Thursday More)

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 14, 2009) – Some 3,000 people joined the funeral march Saturday of a murdered teacher, the daughter of one of the Philippines’ top communist rebel leader in Davao City in Mindanao.

Many were chanting anti-government slogan and blaming the military for the brutal murder of Rebelyn Pitao, whose father Leoncio Pitao, also known as Kumander Parago, is on top of the government’s most wanted man.

The woman’s father is chieftain of the NPA’s Pulang Bagani Command, one of the most feared by soldiers in Mindanao.

Pitao’s daughter was found dead March 5, a day after she was abducted in Davao City. Her naked body was found floating in a shallow creek in the village of San Isidro in Davao del Norte’s Carmen town. Her body bore torture marks and was believed raped before she was stabbed in the chest.Hr father tagged 11 military agents as behind the murder, an accusation strongly denied by the authorities.

Communist rebels vowed those involved in the killing, four of them have already been identified as Sergeants Adan Sulao and Ben Tipait of the Armed Forces’ Military Intelligence Group XI and Corporal Alvin Bitang of the Military Intelligence Battalion (MIB) of the Philippine Army’s 10th Infantry Division, and Orly Pedregosa, another intelligence agent.

“These fascist agents are believed to have carried out this dastardly crime in accordance with instructions from higher ups in their desperate campaign to shatter the determination of Commander Parago and his fellow NPA Red fighters in advancing the people’s revolution,” the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said in a statement.

“These suspects should be sought and arrested so they could undergo investigation by duly authorized revolutionary authorities and face criminal charges,” the CPP said.

The CPP also held the highest officials of the Arroyo government and the AFP responsible for the murder of Rebelyn.

“Ultimately, it is Gloria Arroyo and her top fascist henchmen who are to blame for the crimes against Rebelyn Pitao. Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay Laya 2 has long regarded civilians as targets of military operations including killings, abductions, torture and other forms of fascism. This has now been most hideously extended to apply as well to loved ones and relatives of armed revolutionaries the fascists cannot get hold of.”

Oplan Bantay Laya is the government anti-insurgency campaign in the country.

The CPP also dismissed as “empty rhetoric” the pronouncements of President Arroyo and her defense officials that it is investigating the murder of Rebelyn.

“How can the Arroyo and her factotums be sincere in seeking justice for Rebelyn’s murder when they have, in fact, made this inevitable in the strategy, tactics and course of their counter-revolutionary war? By commending, promoting and rewarding her notorious fascist generals, Arroyo has in fact directly encouraged the Armed Forces of the Philippines to engage in such brutal and dastardly crimes,” it said.

”Rebelyn’s murder highlights the Arroyo regime’s innumerable crimes against unarmed civilians who are invariably regarded by the military and its counter-insurgency strategists as combatants in the raging civil war,” the CPP said.

The Army’s 10th Infantry Division said it has already restricted to Bitang and Pedrogosa so they can answer any investigations into the killing of Pitao’s daughter.

The two soldiers, who were former NPA rebels, denied accusations against them, said Capt. Rosa Manuel, a regional army spokeswoman. (Mindanao Examiner)