INDIGENOUS PEOPLES WATCH

Bloodshed Between Muslims and Kalingas Feared

Police fears that blood might spill between Kalinga and Maranao tribes in Baguio City after a Maranao vendor shot a Kalinga government official.

BY ACE ALEGRE
Bulatlat

BAGUIO CITY – Bloodshed between Northern and Southern tribes – Kalingas and Maranaos – looms as an aftermath of the shooting of a Kalinga anti-illegal peddling official here by a Marawi migrant trader Aug. 22.

George Addawe, 39, head of the anti-illegal peddling task force of the city mayor’s office’s Public Order and Safety Division and also a Kalinga native, was shot in the stomach with a .45 caliber gun by Yunos Darang, a Maranao vendor from Marawi City.

Addawe was rushed to the hospital and is out of danger. 

Baguio City police director Sr. Supt. Isagani Nerez fears of bloodshed between Kalingas and Maranaos if Darang will not be meted justice.

Office of Muslim Affairs Northern and Central Luzon chief Abel Macarimpas however vowed to fly to Marawi City to bring the alleged gunman to Baguio City to face the law.

Baguio police assured on Thursday they will collar Yunos in a few days.

Maranao traders make up the majority of the 4,000 migrant Muslim traders here.
 
Nerez although said it will not be difficult to find Yunos because the victim and witnesses saw him.  
The police initially theorized that the shooting might be work-related in the sense that Addawe and his group had been involved in a lot of operations against illegal vendors in the city for the past several months.

Pushed by emotions

The police director explained that Yunos might have been pushed only by emotions because he only shot the latter in the stomach instead of the head.  “Walang finishing,” (He didn’t finish the job.) Nerez said.

Nerez said that Yunos was not a professional assassin, because a professional would not execute his mission in areas like Session Road where there would be many witnesses.

Minutes before the Aug. 22 shooting, ambulant vendors along Session Road claimed that Addawe and his group had rounded up several vendors.

Vendors claim Addawe had angrily stepped on an old woman’s merchandise during the operation.

In 2004, another official Engr. Nazita Bañez, then head of the city mayor's office's demolition division tasked with running after illegal vendors, structures and squatting was also ambushed at the University of Baguio.

Bañez’s gunman also did not aim at her head but at her buttocks. Bulatlat

© 2006 Bulatlat ■  Alipato Media Center

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