Abra, Philippines

The Enon family continues to cry for justice after Tineg Councilor Pedro Enon Sr. was gunned down Monday night inside their residence in Abra province.

The victim’s wife, Estelita, narrated that after dinner, Councilor Pedro stayed in the dinning area just near their back door reading a copy of a resolution that he was about to submit to Sen. Pia Cayetano.

She said she heard a bang and saw his husband drop dead on the floor with

blood splattered everywhere.

She said the contents of the councilor’s resolution remains a mystery for it was trashed with the stains on the floor.

As investigation pushes through, testimonies from several witnesses reportedly are all pointing to Tineg Mayor Edwin Crisologo. The reports said that Crisologo was purportedly forcing Enon to sign a resolution, but Enon refused to.

Mayor Crisologo denied the allegations however pointing the blame on his political rival. By BUTCH MENDIZABAL

ABS-CBN News

Baguio City (22 May) — Farmers in Tineg, Abra are pleading with Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Avelino Razon to relieve the director of the PNP in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) for his failure to stop the spate of killings perpetrated by the so-called Tineg Death Squad (TDS).

Marlyn Batoon of the Caganayan Farmers Association (CFA) said Chief Superintendent Eugene Martin “failed to stop the reign of terror by the TDS in Tineg and even in Bangued, Abra’s capital.

The latest to be killed by a gunman was Tineg Sangguniang Bayan (SB) Member Pedro Inon, 65, who was gunned down in his residence at Transmitter, Kalaba, Bangued at 8:30 p.m. last Monday, May 19.

Municipal Mayor Edwin Crisologo promptly called on the PNP to investigate the murder of his close political ally and arrest the suspect and the mastermind.

Lawyer Estelita Cordero also appealed to President Arroyo to send independent investigators and police contingent to Abra and dismantle the TDS, noting that the inquiry into the murder of Bangued lawyer Demetrio Pre, 80, and the killers of a security guard at the Bangued municipal hall, which was also attacked by armed men.

Cordero, who is counsel to former Abra Governor Vicsyd Valera, also condemned the forced entry and theft of steel pipes, a generator set and a backhoe by 11 armed men from the property of the Valeras in Bangued, noting “rising criminality and the breakdown of law and order came in the wake of the depredations committed by the death squads.”

Tineg Vice Mayor Noel Quezada and other SB Members also passed a resolution denouncing the murder of Inon and called for a swift and credible investigation of the murder of the municipal councilor.

Luis Putol Sawadan, a Tineg youth leader, also condemned the murder and called on Razon to ax Martin, form a Task Force Tineg (TNT) headed by an impartial PNP officer and hunt down the fatigue-wearing gunmen and arrest their employers.

Sawadan said the “reign of terror in Tineg and the rest of Abra must stop since we do not want to inherit a ghost town, with the remaining residents cringing in fear as the TDS members roam around freely, fearing neither the police nor the law.”

Batoon said since the murderous spree started, “my fellow farmers have stopped venturing into their fields, dreading any encounter with the TDS, who shoot people as if they were birds.”

Last March 29, Tineg SB Member Resty Eduarte, the top councilor of the town, was also shot and wounded in front of his residence at Legaspi/Arellano Sts. in Bangued. His companions Allan Sawadan, Gerald Valera and Joel Clayaon were unhurt. The gunman was not arrested.

Batoon said the Abra police have not arrested the killers of farmers Aquino Buyao, Jonard Gaoilan and Tony Deog, who were peppered with bullets on February 1, 2008 while preparing their lunch near Malecnac River in Tineg. The farmers pleaded that they be spared but the gunmen retorted by firing at them.

Two witnesses identified the killers as six fatigue-wearing men brandishing M-14 and M-16 automatic rifles from Alaoa, Tineg identified with the camp of top Abra politicians, she added. Not one of the TDS members has been arrested by the PNP.

Sworn statements executed by two witnesses tagged the suspects as Antolin Lidao, Jaworski Ayaba, Magno Blanco, Roger Dican, Agapito Cammagay and Ricky Latawa, all from Barangay Alaoa.

At 3 p.m. on September 30, 2007, Batoon said, a truck of the Tineg municipal government was ambushed by armed men at Sitio Vira, Alaoa by alleged supporters of a certain Lenin Benwaren, killing Dominador Balucas and Renato Liya.

The suspected ambushers are Boyet Ayaba, Ricky Lantawa, Jaworski Ayaba, Leny Saguid, Rey Tandi and Roy Tandi, all from Alaoa.

Martin said in a newspaper report that peace had prevailed in Abra a day before.

Batoon also complained why the police have closed the murder case of Brenda Crisologo, wife of Tineg Mayor Edwin Crisologo, who was shot on May 17, 2007 at the Holy Spirit Academy in Bangued. She died in a hospital more than a month after she was shot in the stomach.

The gunman, Totoy Buyao, was also killed and the PNP promptly closed the case even when “witnesses made statements confirming a conspiracy.”

Buyao was alleged to be a drug pusher and closely allied with Lenin Benwaren, who belongs to a very influential political family in Abra.

Tineg is a mineral-rich town, with some foreign-controlled companies staking claims on a large swath of its 82,893-hectare territory, the biggest in all of Abra..

Its current population is about 6,000, mostly Tinguian farmers who inhabit the uplands and who traverse trails, ford rivers and trek hilly terrain to bring their produce to the lowlands.

The municipality received only P37 million as its internal revenue allotment (IRA) for 2002. (PIA)

A 65-year-old town councilor in Abra province was gunned down Monday night inside his boarding house by a lone assailant, police said Tuesday.

The Abra provincial police identified the latest victim of shooting incidents in the province as Pedro Inon, who was shot dead in Barangay (village) Calaba in Bangued town about 8:30 p.m. Monday.

Initial investigation showed that Inon was going through his documents inside his kitchen when the armed man emerged from the darkness and fired his M16 rifle at the local village official.

Four empty shells were recovered from the crime scene. The gunman fled on foot. The victim, meanwhile, was declared dead on arrival at the nearby Sears Hospital.

Inon was a known political ally of Tineg Mayor Edwin Crisologo and former governor Vicente Valera, both considered controversial political figures in the province.

Almost one month prior to the ambush, 75-year-old lawyer Demetrio Villamor Pre and his security guard Efren Bersalona were also shot dead in two separate incidents, about eight hours apart.

Pre was attacked inside his residence in Pratt Street in Barangay (village) Zone 4 in Bangued town while his security guard was killed while stationed at the town hall.

Incidentally, a week earlier, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo visited the nearby provincial capitol building to get an update from local officials on the peace situation in the region. Both killings, however, have yet to be solved by authorities.

GMANews.TV

Cordillera police director Chief Superintendent Eugene Martin ordered Saturday the setting up of checkpoints in strategic areas in Abra to prevent the return of lawlessness in the streets of the province.

Martin’s directive came in the wake of the killing of lawyer Demetrio Pre, and five other ambush and shooting incidents, which triggered speculation that “lawlessness’ is back in the 3rd poorest province of the country.

The Cordillera police director said the police and Army units in Abra are on top of the peace and order situation in the province.

“We are working hard to solve all of those cases in Abra to bring justice to the victims and their families no matter who gets hurt,” said Martin in an interview.

Despite the six incidents, Abra Gov. Eustaquio Bersa­min said that the peace and order situation in the province has vastly improved. “Contrary to the perception of some people who do not want peace in Abra, the peace and order situation in the province has improved a lot,” said Bersamin, as he called on the Abreños to rally behind his leadership so progress and development would come in.

Bersamin called upon his fellow politicians to shy away from retaliatory killings to erase the tag of Abra as the “murder capital” of the country. By Non Alquitran

PhilStar

Bangued, Abra  — The Ahon Pamilyang Pilipino (APP) program is now underway in this province.

According to Decimia D. Cabang of the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office, an orientation of the enumerators who will be tasked to conduct the survey for the determination of the qualified beneficiaries of the said program was undertaken last May 13, at the Provincial Capitol Social Hall.

Other stakeholders were likewise given an orientation on the APP in order to provide them the guidelines of the implementation of the program. These other stakeholders include the Municipal Planning and Development Coordinators, the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officers, the Municipal Health Officers, the supervisors of the Department of Education, their provincial counterparts and the local chief executives.

The APP is a poverty alleviation program of President Arroyo’s administration in achieving the Millennium Development Goals of poverty alleviation and empowering the poor. Its strategy is the provision of money to extreme poor households to allow members of the families to meet certain human development goals.

The APP is focused on building human capital of poorest families such as health/nutrition and education, because low schooling and high malnutrition rate are strongly associated with the poverty cycle in the Philippines.

This aims to break the poverty cycle by addressing the issues of low educational achievement, high levels of maternal and infant mortality rates, high malnutrition rate and high rate of child labor among the poor.

The beneficiaries of this program are the poorest households from the poorest provinces, cities and municipalities of the country selected through a uniform objective and transparent criteria. They will be selected based on a scoring system developed for this purpose which includes the socio-economic characteristics of the households such as non-ownership of assets/appliances, type of housing unit, level of educational attainment of household head, and non-access to water and sanitation facilities.

“Hunger mitigation measures consist of supply side and demand side measures,” the President said, as she paraphrased the late American statesman Adlai Stevenson who said that “a man hungry is not a free man.”

On the supply side, the President said the government is stepping up the country’s food production through its agricultural modernization program.

“Our agricultural modernization program has allowed us to increase our rice production by more than the population growth rate of 2.04 percent.

On the demand side, the President said the government is “challenged to put more money in poor people’s pockets, promote good nutrition and birth spacing.”

It is on this premise that the APP program provides cash grant packages to the beneficiaries such as health cash package of P6,000.00 a year of P500.00 per month per household for health check ups and vaccines; education cash grant of P3,000 for a school year of p300.00 per month per child for school needs for a maximum of three children per household.

This gives a household with three qualified children a subsidy of P15,000 annually for a period of five years provided they are compliant with the conditions set forth. The cash grants are released to the households through the cash card facility of the Land Bank of the Philippines.

These are the conditions in order for the households to qualify for the cash grants: the pregnant woman must get pre-natal care from the first trimester, child birth must be attended by skilled/trained person, and the mother gets post-natal care; parents must attend family planning sessions/mother’s classes/parent effectiveness seminars; children 0-5 years old must get regular health check ups and vaccinations; children 3-5 years old must attend Day Care/pre-school at least 85% of the timer; and children 6-14 years old must attend school at least 85% of the time.

In order to ensure that compliance to the conditions are met, the DSWD project staff in coordination with the DepEd and Health Department shall conduct monitoring and reporting. Non-compliance with the conditions will result to suspension of cash grant or termination from the program. (PIA-Abra)by Maritess Beñas