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ZAMBOANGA CITY: Communist insurgents executed a Christian minister
they accused of aiding soldiers in anti-insurgency campaigns in
Mindanao, a regional army spokesman said on Wednesday.
Lt. Col. Kurt Decapia said soldiers recovered
the body of Josefino Estaniel, a pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist
Church, from a shallow grave in a village called Dalagdag in Calinan
district in Davao City, a known stronghold of the New People’s
Army (NPA) insurgents.
The NPA is the armed wing of the outlawed
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
Decapia said civilian informants led security
forces Tuesday at the grave of the 45-year-old minister. He said
insurgents abducted Estaniel in May on orders from NPA leader
Leoncio Pitao, also known as Commander Parago.
“The decomposing body of Estaniel was exhumed
two kilometers away from the house of a certain Edwin Tangud, where
the group of Parago executed the victim. According to initial field
report, the victim was tortured before he was executed and
buried,” Decapia, quoting army reports, said.
Maj. Gen. Fogy Leo Fojas, commander of the
Army’s 10th Infantry Division, has condemned the NPA atrocities
and the killing of the Christian minister.
Meanwhile, three people were killed and 10
others injured Thursday when communist insurgents threw a grenade
into a bakery in Nabuntaran town, said local army official Lt.
Richard Villaflor.
The bakery was targeted after its owners refused
to pay demands from the communist New People’s Army for extortion
money, known here as “revolutionary taxes,” the official said.
No other details were given about the attack or
those killed.
-- Al Jacinto and AFP
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