Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Aeta leader latest fatality in attacks on leftists

By Ansbert Joaquin, Tonette Orejas
Inquirer
SUBIC, ZAMBALES—An Aeta leader, who used to be the provincial coordinator of the party-list group Anakpawis in Zambales, was shot dead by three men on Saturday, raising the death toll on leftist activists in Central Luzon to 82 since 2005, reports gathered by the Inquirer showed.

Charlie Daylo, 38, an Aeta chieftain in San Felipe town, was gunned down in a resort owned by his in-laws in Barangay Calapandayan here at 1 p.m., according to town police chief Supt. Cesar Jacob.

Three men aboard a white Mitsubishi L-300 van entered the resort, walked toward Daylo, shot him at close range and then drove out to the national highway.

Two witnesses reported seeing the faces of two of the three suspects, Jacob said. They were not wearing bonnets or ski masks to conceal their identities.

An Inquirer source said at least four other persons were involved in the attack, some of them armed with M-16 rifles. The other men were in a jeepney and on a motorcycle, the source said.

In a phone interview, Daylo’s wife Ira said her husband apparently knew the killers.

She said her father, who was with Daylo at the time of the attack, told her that when Daylo saw the gunmen, he said, “Bakit hanggang dito ay sinundan ninyo ako (Why are you following me)?”

Ira’s father said Daylo begged for his life and shouted, “Huwag po, huwag po (Don’t, don’t),” and started running to avoid his attackers. The gunmen then shot him several times.

Daylo died from 11 bullet wounds.

Ira suspected the military to be behind the attack. She said Daylo had once confided to her that soldiers were out to kill him.

She said Daylo was supposed to go to San Felipe town to tend their rice farm on Saturday but she advised him not to leave for security reasons.

Citing police intelligence reports, Jacob said Daylo had been “listed as a New People’s Army rebel.”

Zambales police director Senior Supt. Arrazad Subong said Daylo went by the alias “Ka Jobet.”

In 1998, the military’s Northern Luzon Command released a report identifying the Aeta leader as an NPA commander.

Daylo met the Inquirer then to refute Nolcom’s claims. He used to chair the Central Luzon Aeta Association until he was elected head of the tribal council, also in 1998.

Daylo was vice chair of the Zambales chapter of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples at the time of his death.

Roman Polintan, chair of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Central Luzon, said Daylo had not been active in his Anakpawis work due to threats to his life.

The killing followed the slaying of Arnel Guevarra, an Anakpawis supporter, on Friday night in Mexico, Pampanga.

On Thursday, labor leader Lowie Sangalang was arrested by soldiers in the City of San Fernando in Pampanga, while four activists were abducted in Lupao, Nueva Ecija.

The incidents took place as the second month of the military’s intensified anti-insurgency campaign in Central Luzon began.

Transport sector leader Emerlito Lipio has been missing since he was arrested by soldiers and policemen in Angeles City on July 3. Two University of the Philippines students and a farmer in Bulacan have not been seen since they were allegedly seized by soldiers in Hagonoy, Bulacan, on June 26.

In Casiguran, Sorsogon, police could not yet identify suspects in the killing of Danilo Hagosojos, a leader of the Samahan ng mga Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Amnestiya (Selda).

Casiguran Mayor Edwin Hamor said they would start checking people riding in tandem on motorcycles as part of measures to prevent similar incidents from happening. With a report from Bobby Q. Labalan, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

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