Tuguegarao folk rue spate of killings
TUGUEGARAO CITY—The morning of Nov. 13 would have been just the start of another busy day for fish trader Rosemarie Bunagan-Bansig, 43, as she and her driver, Elmer Narag, headed to the city market.
As their van was cruising along a provincial road in Barangay Buntun past 10 a.m., they were shot by two men on a motorcycle. Bansig died several hours later.
A former city councilor and scion of a political family, Bansig was the latest casualty in the spate of killings in Tuguegarao City, the capital of Cagayan province. Residents have expressed alarm that Cagayan Valley’s regional center has become a hotbed of political violence.
Most of the murders, which remain unsolved, are widely seen as the offshoot of a bitter rivalry between the city’s two political camps—the Ting family and the opposing camp led by former Mayor Jefferson Soriano.
The killings have almost become commonplace for some citizens, counting the dead like scores in a football game.
Since January, 15 murders have been recorded in the city, all of which, except for two cases, remain unsolved, said Inspector Peter Bometivo, city police chief investigator.
This figure is on top of other crimes, which include robbery, abduction, car theft and rape, prompting residents to speak out, mostly on social media, and take to task local officials and police for the state of peace and order in Tuguegarao.
Killings political?
While police hesitated to make any pronouncement on the motives behind Bansig’s killing, Tuguegarao residents speculated that it was just another round of the simmering quarrel between the city’s warring political camps.
Denying allegations that their camp was responsible for Bansig’s death, Cagayan Representative Randolph Ting called on his constituents to condemn not only the slaying but also the series of killings in the city.
“Honestly, she had not done anything that would give us any reason to do that to her. We are also getting alarmed [by these crimes], especially that we, too, are getting death threats,” he said.
On Oct. 3, Gyorgy Tong, Ting’s senior political officer, was gunned down after he dropped off his children in school. A police task force formed to investigate Tong’s killing has yet to establish a lead that could help in the identification of the suspects.
A retired police deputy director general, Soriano, in an earlier interview, had denied that his camp was behind Tong’s killing.
The political rivalry simmered again in recent weeks, following the ouster of Soriano as mayor and city administrator Ronald Brillantes for grave misconduct. Their ouster was triggered by an administrative complaint filed last year in the Office of the Ombudsman by Councilor Maila Rosario Ting-Que.
Soriano’s dismissal has disheartened his supporters, who believed that the penalty the Ombudsman imposed was too harsh. His fault: closing city streets and entering into a contract for the operation of a flea market without authorization from the city council.
In the days that followed the release of the Ombusdman’s order, Tong had been active in spreading the news about Soriano’s dismissal, family members said.
Police sources said Tong was the third Ting ally to be murdered since the May 2013 elections. Bansig, on the other hand, was the third Soriano supporter to be killed. In all six cases, investigators are facing a blank wall.
Investigators declined to link any of the murders to the political rivalry in the city, saying they face the risk of earning the ire of either camp.
Reign of terror
But aside from the murders that had shades of the dirty side of politics in the city, several others have fallen victim to the hands of killers.
On Nov. 9, Dionisio Singson, 39, a city government employee, was shot and killed by a lone man after he tried to save his younger sister, who was being robbed in front of their house in Barangay San Gabriel around 8 p.m.
Three days later, Esteban Garcia, 20, was made to board a van by four men in Barangay Pengue-Ruyu. His body was found hours later on a grassy lot near the boundary of Isabela and Cagayan provinces.
The news of the prevalence of crimes in the city has residents stricken with fear.
“I now have to make sure that I fetch my daughter from school every day. I no longer go out of the house when darkness falls,” said Mielmia Marie Baquiran, a provincial employee.
For fear of getting robbed, tricycle driver Alfredo Matammu, 51, of Barangay Cataggaman Nuevo, said he had not been plying his route at night and would refuse passengers who want to be taken to isolated parts of the city.
In a phone interview, Supt. Jess Tamayao, acting city police director, parried widespread criticism of their supposed failure to stop the rise of criminal activities in Tuguegarao.
He assured residents of the continuing efforts of the local police, including beefing up personnel and augmenting their presence in every corner of the city.
“While we admit that we may have some shortcomings, it does not mean we have been remiss in our duty to protect our citizens. We have been trying our best but we are really undermanned and also ill-equipped,” he said.
The recent spate of killings prompted Cagayan Governor Alvaro Antonio to summon the city’s top officials to a peace forum on Nov. 17, crafting strategies on how they could curb criminality in the city.
