Aklan councilor charged in Tubungan farmer's slay
Police have charged a town councilor in Aklan who also chairs the provincial chapter of the militant partylist group Bayan Muna with last month's killing of a farmer in Tubungan town in Iloilo.
The Tubungan Philippine National Police headed by Insp. Efren Niembra included Lezo town councilor Fernando Baldomero, 58, in the murder complaint filed before the Iloilo Provincial Prosecutors Office last July 23 for the killing of Arturo Tagudinay.
The 13 other respondents include Ariston Remus, Camlon Sabares, alias Ka Alan; Nahum Camariosa, alias Ka Bebong; and 10 unidentified suspects allegedly belonging to the New People's Army Napoleon Tumagtang Command.
Niembra accused Baldomero, who allegedly has an alias Ka Gene, and the other respondents for shooting to death Tagudinay around 10:30 a.m. on July 11 at Lupao Creek in Sitio Ila-Ila in Barangay Igdampog Sur in Tubungan, Iloilo, around 41 km south of here.
The NPA's Napoleon Tumagtang Command, through its spokesperson Ariston Remus, had claimed responsibility for the killing of Tagudinay. The rebel command is under the Southern Front Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines and operates in southern Iloilo and parts of Antique province,
Remus had accused Tagudinay of alleged various abuses against residents of hinterland villages of Tubungan including the stealing and destroying crops. Military officials, however, claimed that Tagudinay was killed because he refused to give in to the rebels' demands to give palay regularly.
Baldomero denied the accusation.
"How can I be an NPA member and be part of attacks in Tubungan when I'm busy here with my work as town councilor?" Baldomero said in a telephone interview.
Baldomero pointed out that this is the second time in barely two years that he has been implicated in attacks of the NPA.
"This is plain harassment especially because of my position as provincial chair of Bayan Muna," he said.
Baldomero, a former political detainee, was also included in a criminal complaint and arrested in 2005 for the August 2004 ambush and killing of a policeman and soldiers in San Remigio town, Antique.
He was also accused of being involved in the burning of equipment worth P15 million at a field office of construction firm E.C. de Luna Construction Corp. in Barangay Particion in Guimbal, 29 km south of Iloilo City, days before the May 11, 2004 elections.
He was ordered released from detention on December 2005 after courts dismissed the cases for lack of evidence.
Baldomero said he has been living in his hometown in Lezo since 1993 and has even become a barangay councilor of his village Sta. Cruz Biga-a since 1997.
"This is part of the campaign to harass leaders of militant groups by implicating us in attacks of the NPA," said Baldomero.