DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 6, 2009) – An abducted daughter of a senior Maoist rebel leader was found brutally murdered in the southern Philippines, where security forces are battling insurgents fighting for a communist state in the restive region.
Rebelyn Pitao was abducted by gunmen on board a van on March 4 in Davao City. The next day, her body was found in a creek in the town of Carmen in Davao del Sur province.
Reports said the body of the 21-year old woman, a teacher by profession, was wearing nothing, but underwear. Her hands were tied and mouth was bound with a packaging tape – she had stabbed wounds in her chest and was believed tortured and raped by her abductors.
The young woman is the daughter of Leoncio Pitao, who is also known as Kumander Parago, leader of a New People’s Army command responsible for the series of attacks on government forces in Mindanao.
Pitao’s family blamed the military for the killing. Military spokesmen in Davao City also ignored phone calls from journalists.
The Promotion of Church People’s Response also blamed the government’s counter-insurgency campaign for Pitao’s murder.
“The Arroyo government’s counter-insurgency plan and policy of state violence against its perceived enemies has taken its most cruel head in the killing of an innocent daughter and civilian. We are aghast with how state elements can go such lengths in its bid to capture its hated enemy, in the person of Ka Parago, and to eventually weaken the revolutionary organization of the New People’s Army,” it said in a statement.
There was no immediate statement from either the NPA or Pitao about the brutal murder of his daughter. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte vowed to seek justice for the killing of the woman.
Government forces are battling NPA rebels in Mindanao the past decades. The NPA is fighting for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country and the killing of Pitao's daughter coincided with the government announcement that it would resume collapsed peace talks with rebels. (Mindanao Examiner)
Friday, March 06, 2009
Abducted daughter of NPA leader brutally killed in Southern Philippines
Thursday, July 31, 2008
NPA Rebels Raid Davao City Village
About 50 NPA rebels stormed the house of a banana grower and seized weapons from security guards after overpowering them late Wednesday in Buhangin district in the outskirts of Davao City. The rebels also raided the Lapanday banana plantation and RTQ construction firm in Buhangin and torched equipment and trucks.
Police and military said there were no reports of casualties or injuries and that security forces were pursuing the raiders. “We have dispatched additional police forces in the area to protect civilians from future attacks by rebels,” said a regional police spokesman, Chief Inspector Querubin Manalang.
Government troops were also deployed to track down the attackers, led by Leonardo Pitao, said Lieutenant Colonel Roland Joselito Bautista, spokesman of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division.
“We have deployed more troops to hunt down the NPA terrorists headed by Leonardo Pitao who were responsible for the attacks,” he told the Mindanao Examiner.
Last week, the rebels also raided a banana plantation owned by Dole Makilala town in North Cotabato province. Rebels also raided a drilling site of the Sagittarius Mines in Davao del Sur's Kiblawan town on July 19 and carted away a dozen firearms from the firm's arsenal.
The NPA said the attack was a punitive action against the banana plantation’s alleged encroachment into the cultivated farmlands of small farmers and indigenous tribes and for the injustices inflicted on its workers by militarizing their legitimate mass protests, and suppressing their leaders.
Rebels have vowed to launch more attacks against government and military targets in the southern Philippines where thousands of troops are battling the NPA, which is fighting for a separate Maoist state the past four decades.
Communist leaders broke off peace talks with the Arroyo government in 2004 after accusing Manila of reneging on its commitments to free all political prisoners and to put a stop to political killings, among others.
The United States and the European Union on Manila’s prodding listed the Communist Party of the Philippines and the NPA, including its political arm, the National Democratic Front, as foreign terrorist organizations and froze their assets abroad. (Romy Bwaga)
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
NPA Accuses RP Military Of Human Rights Violations
A rebel leader Leoncio “Leonardo” Pitao, also known as Ka Parago Sandoval, said government offensive in the province have forced thousands of villagers to flee their homes.
Failing to find the rebels, soldiers were venting their ire on innocent civilians in the villages of Manay and Casilac in Panabo town where the military operation is concentrated, said Pitao, of the 1st Pulang Bagani Company, of the NPA’s Merardo Arce Command.
“The 1st Pulang Bagani Company calls on the Armed Forces of the Philippines to stop venting its ire on the people of Barangay Manay and Barangay Casilac, Panabo, Davao del Norte in order to deflect attention from the dishonor it has suffered in the NPA raid on the Davao Penal Colony,” Pitao said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
Pitao was referring to the NPA raid on the prison facility in Panabo town early this month where rebels, clad in military uniform, carted more than 100 firearms.
“Maj. Randolph Cabangbang of the AFP's Eastern Mindanao Command is making up stories and licking their bruised ego by wreaking havoc on the civilian populace through aerial bombardments, massive enforced displacements, and innumerable human rights abuses.”
“The bombing operation on Manay and Casilac was sheer chest-beating on the part of the AFP to show off its firepower and arrogance in the face of shame and defeat to the detriment of the lives and livelihood of civilians,” Pitao said.
He said the raid on the prison facility demonstrated the NPA's discipline and capacity to carry out tactical offensives without bloodshed.
Authorities have previously filed a string of charges against Pitao and six of his followers in connection with a raid at a banana plantation last year.
Local prosecutors charged Pitao for allegedly torching and destroying a seven-hectare banana plantation in Paquibato District in Davao City in September.
The Philippine Fresh Fruits Corporation owned the plantation. Chief city prosecutor Raul Bendigo said the damage to the plantation reached to about P3.5 million.
Bendigo said they filed two charges of malicious mischief on top of an arson case based on the investigation of prosecutor Jofre Saniel. The firm’s manager, Teodolfo Vergara, said Parago led the attack. (Mindanao Examiner)
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Senior NPA Leader, 6 Others Charged For Plantation Attack In South RP
Local prosecutors charged Leoncio “Leonardo” Pitao, also known as Ka Parago Sandoval, and six of his followers, for allegedly torching and destroying a seven-hectare banana plantation in Paquibato District in Davao City in September.
The Philippine Fresh Fruits Corporation owned the plantation. Chief city prosecutor Raul Bendigo said the damage to the plantation reached to about P3.5 million.
Bendigo said they filed two charges of malicious mischief on top of an arson case based on the investigation of prosecutor Jofre Saniel.
The firm’s manager, Teodolfo Vergara, said Parago led the attack.
All seven are at-large, authorities said. There were no immediate statement from either Parago or the NPA about the laetst charges. Parago is also facing a string of murder charges filed by the military and police for the killings of soldiers and policemen and civilians suspected as government spy. (Romy Bwaga)