BUTUAN CITY—A day before the burial of slain Loreto town Mayor Dario Otaza and his son, Daryl, lumad leaders here expressed fears that they would suffer the same fate at the hands of the New People’s Army.
Datu Payad Sangkoan Ray Cervantes, chair of the Caraga Regional Council for the Indigenous Peoples, said many lumad leaders are also making a stand against the New People’s Army like the slain Mayor Otaza.
Cervantes said Otaza was not the first lumad leader who was murdered by the rebels for taking a stand against their expansion.
“If the NPA can murder Mayor Otaza, who had bodyguards and influence, you can imagine what they can do to lumad leaders who do not have the same resources, “ Cervantes said.
He said a report from the Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Conference that 357 lumad leaders were killed by the NPA rebels from 1998 to 2008.
Mayor Otaza and his son Daryl were abducted and murdered by suspected NPA rebels who posed as National Bureau of Investigation agents in Butuan City last Oct. 19.
They are scheduled to be buried at the Uraya Memorial Gardens in Butuan City today, Wednesday.
Cervantes said many of the lumad leaders are not armed like the Bagani warriors, nor do they have ties with Datu Calpit Egua and the Tejero brothers who were tagged in the murder of a school-for-lumad director and two of his companions in Surigao del Sur last Sept. 1.
“Many of our leaders are armed with only bolos and antiquated rifles and is no match with the well-armed NPA rebels,” he said.
Some 500 supporters of the slain mayor staged an anti-communist rally at the Guingona Park in Butuan City on Tuesday.
Displaying placards asking for justice for the slain Otaza and his son, the rallyists who were composed mostly of lumads from Agusan del Sur denounced the NPA rebels for killing the two victims without the benefit of a trial.
“Is this what they call a revolutionary justice? They did not even ask the victims to respond to the charges that were accused of,” Datu Makahinlo Gubat Marcos Gonzales said.
The NPA claimed responsibility for killing Otaza and his son “to give justice to the thousands of indigenous peoples and peasants terrorized by their tyranny in Loreto and surrounding municipalities in Agusan del Sur.”
The rebel group also said Daryl was also allegedly distributing and selling illegal drugs in Agusan del Sur.
Wilfredo Otaza, younger brother of the slain mayor, denied all these accusations, saying his brother was only working for the development of Loreto, a river town.
