| Case Study 2
Jones, Isabela violence
Among the three high-profile cases of election-related violence reported in the recent elections in northern Luzon occurred in Jones, a rural town on the southern edge of Isabela. A farming town with 42 barangays, it has among the largest in land area with 670 sq. km, slightly larger than the whole of Metro Manila.
Its relatively large land area entitles Jones to a substantial share in Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA)—P395 million from 2013 to 2015, the third highest among the province’s 34 towns. Isabela has three cities: Santiago, Cauayan and Ilagan, the provincial capital. Aside from its IRA share, the town government also receives a substantial income from local sources—about P20 million a year, which include taxes from business, quarry and mining operations. Control over the town’s vast finances has made local politics a tempting come-on for politicians, but has also served as a flashpoint of bickering among rival political groups, namely politicians allied with incumbent mayor Leticia Sebastian of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, and those in the opposition, who belonged to the Liberal Party.
But its remote location at the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountains has made it a lair for communist rebels, often cited as the base of the New People’s Army’s Benito Tesorio Command. As such, the Philippine Army has maintained a steady presence in the area, with a detachment of the 77th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Dibuluan. Over the years, the town’s peace and order climate has been beset with sporadic incidents of violence, which include ambuscades by the NPA rebels, and their skirmishes with government troopers.
As such, it is public knowledge among residents that elected officials are often led into maintaining “cordial” relations with the insurgents, including religiously paying “revolutionary taxes” and “permit-to-campaign” fees during election period.
Residents are wary, too, of the active involvement in local politics of members of a people’s organization, known as PADER, or the Patriotic Action For Democracy Equality and Reform. This group has been known to be involved in helping members in the countryside in agrarian reform disputes, according to Jones police officials. But word is rife in town that a number of its members have been issued firearms by local politicians and have become their pseudo private army.
Local sources said that the wrangling among local politicians, catalysed by the involvement of the NPA, as well as the proliferation of loose firearms, have triggered the recent incidents of election-related violence in Jones.
On April 13, the entourage of town government employees led by Vice Mayor Ronaldo Lucas was on its way to Barangay Dicamay 2, a known NPA stronghold, supposedly to distribute “relief goods” and “calamity assistance” to residents there and its nearby barangays. To some, this was a disguised election campaign and vote buying activity; the campaign period has started, and Lucas was running for vice mayor, while others in his group were also vying for council seats.
Before the group reached their destination, their convoy was flagged down by about 30 suspected NPA rebels (100 in a PNP “spot” report) who emerged from the bushes by the roadside, according news reports. Lucas supposedly negotiated with the armed rebels, who demanded to take the vice mayor into custody, while agreeing to release the rest. They also seized cash amounting to P675,000. About two hours later, his abductors sent out word that the vice mayor has been killed. Village officials later found Lucas’ dead body sprawled on the village road of Dicamay 2.
A PNP report said the NPA confronted Lucas for failure to pay “permit-to-campaign” fees, among “other political issues”. Local sources, however, say that the NPA intervened to prevent Lucas’ group from campaigning in Dicamay 2, an upland village 20 km from the town center, but with a population of about 1,500. It is also said that the insurgents killed Lucas to avenge last year’s killing of Vice Mayor Florante Raspado.
Lucas, a former council member, is the successor of Raspado, a former three-term mayor who is known to have had close ties with NPA rebels in Jones. On June 20, 2015, he was shot to death by a lone gunman who barged into the session hall as the vice mayor was presiding over a regular session of the Sangguniang Bayan. A bodyguard of a council member was also killed.
A press statement issued by the NPA thereafter condemned Raspado’s death, and warned that the revolutionary movement was ready to exact payback against his killers should the wheels of justice turn slowly.
Subsequent events pointed to politics as the motive behind Raspado’s assassination. At the time of his death, he was a vocal critic of incumbent mayor Sebastian, and was publicly expected to try to reclaim the mayoralty post in the 2016 elections. The murder suspects also have links with the mayor.
Social media provided clues on the ongoing rift between the two rival groups. Sebastian was criticized for her failure to curb the proliferation of illegal drugs in Jones,
Sebastian and Raspado used to be political allies, but became rivals in 2013 elections when Raspado fielded his wife Evelyn to replace him, but she lost to the re-electionist mayor.
A day after the attack on Lucas, San Isidro village chair Heinrich Apostol, who is running for a seat in the town council under Sebastian’s NPC ticket, was also gunned down by unidentified assailants while drinking in his home with a fellow barangay chair.
Sebastian recently won her re-election, defeating her Liberal Party contender, vice mayor Melanie Uy, a former council member who succeeded Lucas following his death on April 13. In the vice mayoralty race, Raspado’s widow Evelyn defeated Lucas’ substitute candidate, his son Ronaldo Gerald.
The acts of violence did not end with the killing of Lucas and Apostol. On the last day of campaign before the May 9 elections, a two-vehicle convoy led byBarangay 1 chair Esperanza Rhoda Anunciacion, sister of mayoralty candidate Uy, was ambushed by armed men in Barangay Namnama, while on the campaign trail. The attack killed three, including Uy’s brother in-law and the village chair’s husband Arthur, and sister in-law Lydia. Esperanza and her their 12-year old daughter were wounded.
Sources, however, said the attack on the LP contingent was meant to prevent the group from conducting vote-buying activities in Namnama, while at the same time a retaliation for the killing of Lucas and Apostol weeks earlier.
But the Jones police declined to make conclusions pointing to armed supporters of Sebastian as responsible for the ambush. Senior Insp. Samuel Lopez, officer in-charge of the police station, also would not confirm reports that Sebastian was being backed by armed members of PADER.
But the Jones police declined to make conclusions pointing to armed supporters of Sebastian as responsible for the ambush. Senior Insp. Samuel Lopez, officer in-charge of the police station, also would not confirm reports that Sebastian was being backed by armed members of PADER.
Lucas and Apostol became the latest addition to a growing list of public officials who fell victims of violence in Jones, seen as an offshoot of political vendetta among rival groups. Before them and Raspado were the murders of town treasurer Mario Duerme in 2014, councilor Rodrigo Manuel in 2008, and village chair Jake Soriano in 2003. In 2002, Mayor Jesus Sebastian was assassinated by armed men, who later identified themselves as NPA rebels.
Residents are concerned that Jones politics will be continue to be tense in next three years, with Mayor Sebastian at the helm having to contend with a Sangguniang Bayan dominated (6 to 2) by the opposition, headed by LP rival Vice Mayor Evelyn Raspado, but with Suzette Sebastian, the mayor’s niece and ally, as the highest-ranking SB member. |
