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GENERAL SANTOS CITY: The Regional Trial Court of Sarangani has
ordered Wednesday the commitment to prison of an alleged top New
People’s Army commander despite some strong assertions that the
captive was not a real rebel but a mere land tiller.
Police said the suspect, identified as Jeramil
Benedicto, was identified as the same Kumander Warren who led an NPA
band that was involved in the abduction of former Alabel town vice
mayor Hermie Galzote during the previous elections.
“He [Benedicto] was positively identified by
our witnesses to have led the communist guerillas who abducted
Galzote and disarmed the latter’s civilian escorts in an isolated
village at the height of the campaign period in April 2007,” Sr.
Supt. Danilo Peralta, Sarangani police director, said.
Sarangani RTC executive Judge Jaime Infante
ordered the detention of the suspect at the Sarangani Provincial
Detention and Rehabilitation Center after authorities arrested him
during his wedding in Polomolok, South Cotabato on Saturday.
Benedicto, a native of Lebak, Sultan Kudarat,
was detained in spite of strong contentions stressed by
Karapatan-SOCSKSARGEN chapter leader Emily Lopez, several church
ministers and some members of the media that “he [the suspect] was
nothing but a fall guy.”
Upon his arrival at the Sarangani Provincial
jail, Peralta said two detained former NPA rebels also identified
Benedicto as the same Kumander Warren they had known in the
communist terrorist movement. The former NPA rebels alleged that
Benedicto led them in several atrocities around Sarangani and Davao
del Sur provinces in the past years including the raid and burning
of a Globe cell site in Malapatan town in 2003.
-- Isagani L. Palma
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