Zamboanga del Sur map. INQUIRER FILES
PAGADIAN CITY, ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR — Less than a week before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) implements the election gun ban, armed men have been reported roaming around remote villages here, allegedly harassing communities to support a certain politician.
Lt. Col. Rolando Vargas Jr., commander of the Philippine Army’s 53rd Infantry Battalion, said soldiers assigned in Bayog town in Zamboanga del Sur arrested on Sunday, Jan. 5, four civilians wearing military uniforms and carrying firearms in the town’s remote village of Kanipaan.
He said the soldiers led by First Lt. Kim Cerdrick Lemus of the unit’s Charlie Company, arrested at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday Jhimboy Entag,
Angcap Dalansay, Arnel Opoc Daluyon, and Lito Andawas Simbulan for carrying three 45-caliber pistols and one 38-caliber revolver in Barangay Kanipaan, around 10 kilometers away from Bayog town proper.
Maj. Harry Velez, Bayog police chief, said the arrested individuals were now in custody of the Bayog town police station and would be facing charges for usurpation of authority and violation of Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.
Vargas said the soldiers were responding to the community’s call for help.Both Timuay Lucenio Manda, Bayog tribal chieftain, and Bayog Sangguniang Bayan Member Berly Jate said they had been getting reports from Subanen communities in the remote parts of the town that they were being harassed by armed men to support certain candidates in the upcoming elections.
Manda, however, expressed dismay when he learned that the arrested armed men were also members of the Subanen tribe.
“Although they’re members of the tribe, we cannot tolerate their actions,” he said as he asked the authorities to find ways to stop the harassment affecting Subanen families.
He also called on all the Subanens in Bayog not to be lured by money to harass fellow members of their tribe.
Jate said the four arrested persons had worked as job orders at the Bayog municipal hall, based on the municipal government payroll in December last year. He said the four were assigned to conduct road security.
According to Jate, at least 20 armed men in military uniform had been knocking on peoples’ houses, telling residents not to support groups opposed to a certain politician.
Velez said they also received other reports of sightings of armed men in remote areas although they could not confirm yet whose groups these armed men belonged to.
He said Comelec recently called a meeting with the other government agencies where they had agreed to monitor all politicians who might hire or use armed groups for the upcoming midterm and local elections.
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