Gruesome Killing of Old Sugar Worker Sows Tension in Negros

No suspect has been arrested in the killing of Tay Pedring the night of March 1 in Escalante City, northern Negros Occidental. But the killing took place in the midst of a land row involving tycoon and former Marcos crony, Eduardo ‘Danding’ Cojuangco, some local officials and the Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA), a breakaway group of the New People’s Army.

By Bulatlat.com

Five days after his gruesome death, a local chairman of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) will be buried this Wednesday in Escalante City, northern Negros Occidental amid cries by his family and members of the labor federation for justice.

Pedro Trabajador, 70, more known as Tay Pedring, was gunned down by an assassin 6:30 p.m. March 1, as he was heading home to sitio Tanquinto, Barangay (village) Mabini with his granddaughter.
“We are in mourning but we are also enraged and we vow to see to it that much-deserved justice would be had for his death,” said Guillermo Barreta Jr., chairman of NFSW.

But Barreta slammed the police and the city government for what he called as their “evident inaction” on the murder of Tay Pedring. “Are they not going to act because Tay Pedring is a simple farmworker? Are they not interested in ensuring that justice can be had for the family of Tay Pedring? It seems they are,” Barreta said.

Tay Pedring left his wife, Nay Neneng, and four children.

While the police have yet to take action, the NFSW came out with details of the killing citing testimonies of several residents. One of the residents said Tay Pedring was only 50 meters away from his house when he stopped by the roadside to light his hand-rolled “lumboy” cigarette. The gunman, who was with three other lookouts lurking in the shadows, casually went to Tay Pedring, wrapped his hand around the old man’s shoulder and took him to a dark spot by the roadside. There, three shots rang out.
The identities of the witnesses, however, are being withheld by NFSW.

Land row and RPA

Aside from the slowly unraveling details of the violent death, the backdrop to the case is also being pieced together by NFSW.

Initial reports showed that Escalante Mayor Santiago Barcelona plans to develop the area into a “Farmers’ Village” for the Democratic Association of Labor Organizations (DALO), a splinter of the NFSW. However, DALO wants to take over the lands being cultivated by NFSW members, sparking a row. The area had also been placed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program with NFSW members as the identified farmer-beneficiaries and sparked another land row.

Likewise, reports from the NFSW local chapter also showed that as early as 1999, a slain ranking official of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA), Abel, was scouting for lands to be occupied by the cassava and corn plantation of tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco. The plantation was to be managed by the Escalante Cassava and Corn Farmers Association (ESCCOFA), a counterpart of the Don Salvador Benedicto Cassava and Corn Farmers Association (SALVACCOFA) that is being managed by former town mayor Nehemias dela Cruz, a known henchman of Cojuangco.

Apart from Abel, officials of DALO were also reportedly looking for areas for the cassava and corn plantation. Sitio Tanquinto, particularly the area occupied by NFSW members, was one of the areas identified. DALO, which is openly supporting the peace agreement between the RPA and government, reportedly favors the Cojuangco venture.

Since then, NFSW had been launching a series of actions to prevent the entry of ESCCOFA and the usurpation of their lands through the project. In fact, agrarian reform department’s Municipal Agrarian Reform Office (MARO), before Tay Pedring’s slaying, was planning to file a case against DALO for obstructing the CARP implementation.

Revealing, however, were reports that aside from the looming entry of Cojuangco, one of the many ventures being undertaken across Negros, a group of RPA led by Ricky Benigay is also based in the area. Benigay, who was charged along with his brother for the killing of a farmer and the abduction of another in Sagay City last year, was captured along with 14 other heavily-armed men at a checkpoint of the Alpha Company of the 78th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Bato, Sagay City also last year. Benigay’s group, the report added, is also responsible for several holdup incidents which the police have yet to solve.

Mysterious release

Benigay and the others were released, however, by the battalion commander, Col. Jonas Sumagaysay, on orders, the latter said, of the national defense department. He was quoted by a local daily to have said that holding Benigay would endanger the ongoing peace process between government and the RPA.

Timot, reportedly a ranking commander of the RPA in northern Negros, had also confirmed late January that Benigay is indeed one of their commanders. Witnesses added that one of the two motorcycles used by the four unidentified armed men was also driven by Abel before his death.

What is more ironic, however, is the fact that Escalante is being rimmed by several Army and police detachments. One of these is the Regional Mobile Group detachment in haciendas Habitat and Amparo, only minutes away from the crime scene.

Despite this, not a single suspect has been arrested. “We smell something fishy about this,” Barreta said. “Indeed there is something amiss from the looks of it but in due time, we will come out with a more comprehensive finding on this.”

Meanwhile, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)-Negros dared what it called the “Silent Five” to “do a lot of explaining” over the death of Trabajador.

‘Defeaning silence’

”Their silence is deafening; it seems that they are quick to pinpoint responsibility when it comes to other groups but when the Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA) is involved, it seems that they are real afraid to say something,” said Julius Mariveles, secretary general of Bayan-Negros.

The “Silent Five” Mariveles was referring to are Gov. Joseph Marañon; Escalante Mayor Barcelona; provincial police chief, Senior Supt. Geary Barias; the Army’s 303rd Infantry Brigade chief, Col. Alphonsus Crucero; and Noel Tabara, chairman of the RPA’s political wing, the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa (RPM).

Marañon, Mariveles said, should explain why despite his assertions that he is not a “simple stooge” of Cojuangco’s at Capitol the provincial government is reportedly supporting Cojuangco’s land expansion spree as proven particularly in Escalante.

“Here we have a murder suspect running wild in Escalante and yet, the police is evidently afraid in running after him; this responsibility rests on the shoulders of Barias,” Mariveles said.

Crucero, on the other hand, should be made to answer why one of his battalion commanders, Colonel Sumagaysay, ordered the release of Benigay after arresting him with 14 other heavily-armed RPA guerillas at a checkpoint last January, the Bayan secretary-general said.

“Did you really let loose your wild dogs, Colonel, to sow terror among the sugar workers, especially members of the NFSW?” the Bayan official said. Mariveles also took a swipe at DALO, which he said was “pitting the sugar workers against each other if only to achieve their selfish interests.”

As Tabara, Mariveles said the incident “only proves that this habitual liar and special agent of the Armed Forces had once again been caught lying between his teeth."

“Whatever his assertions that they are not running dogs of Danding are simply lies; the Escalante incident only proves that wherever Danding is expanding, the RPA is not far behind, cheering him on,” the Bayan official added. Bulatlat.com

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