Dumagat herded for polls held by cops

CAMP GEN. ALEJO SANTOS, Bulacan—Police and soldiers manning a checkpoint in Bulacan on Friday intercepted a convoy of vehicles carrying Dumagat villagers and escorted by six armed men at a remote village in Norzagaray town.

Senior Supt. Joel Orduña, Bulacan police director, said one of the armed men, Jason Masulac, a security guard from Quezon City, was a former member of the Philippine Army.

Orduña said the team at the checkpoint in Barangay (village) Bitungol flagged down the convoy at 5:30 p.m. when its lead vehicle, a white Mitsubishi Montero sport utility vehicle (SUV), tried to leave.

The convoy was composed of the SUV, a brown Hummer and two trucks painted in military fatigue which were carrying

50 Dumagat.

Masulac and the other men were carrying two M16 rifles, a 9-mm pistol, a .45 cal. pistol and bullets.

Arrested with Masulac for election gun ban violation were Roel de la Cruz, 32, and Randy Constantino, 36, both truck helpers from Baliuag town; driver Rammil Herrera, 34, of Doña Remedios Trinidad town; and Allan Capellan, 42, and Audie Lado, 53, both of San Jose del Monte City.

Orduña said the Dumagat refused to say where they came from or where they were headed. One of them claimed they would be voting for a candidate in Bulacan. The Dumagat were allowed to return home.

Orduña said the men appeared to be members of a private armed group hired by a politician running for mayor in Bulacan’s third district.

He said police were checking to see if the politician was related to the owner of the lead vehicle, Rafael Flores of Antipolo City.

Reports from the military, however, claimed that the arrested men were a team of communist rebels and members of a private armed group.

Capt. Mark Anthony Ruelos, spokesperson of the 7th Infantry Division based in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, said the checkpoint team arrested communist rebels who were dressed in military uniforms with counterfeit badges of the 56th Infantry Battalion (IB).

An official from the 56th IB also reported the arrest of rebels.

Orduña, however, said the police believed the suspects had no ties with the New People’s Army. Reports from Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Anselmo Roque and Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon