Killing of tribal leader denounced

TAGUM CITY, Philippines—Tribal leaders in Monkayo, Compostela Valley, condemned on Thursday the killing of a female colleague by an unidentified gunman the previous night.

Members of the United Tribal Council of Elders and Leaders (UTCEL) in Monkayo also asked the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the murder of Bai Florita Caya, 58.

Senior Superintendent Aaron Aquino, Compostela Valley police chief, told the Inquirer that investigators were  looking into the possibility that the killing was linked to the previous murders of two tribal leaders in Monkayo.

The victim was tending her store at Purok 2B around 7 p.m. Wednesday when the gunman barged in and shot her in the head and then fled on a motorcycle driven by a companion, Aquino said.

Jake Lanes, spokesperson for the tribal leaders, said they condemned the killing and that they will write a letter to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima asking her to look into it.

Caya, a widow, was a Mandaya tribal leader and vice president of the  Utcel.

“The tribes are very worried with this incident. It seemed some groups want to undermine the tribe’s process (of dialogue through) limpas.

It seemed they did not want the tribes to be united,” Lanes told the Inquirer by mobile phone Thursday.

On April 20, leaders from Monkayo’s four tribes—Mandaya, Mangguangan, Dibabawon and Mansaka—held a “limpas,” traditionally a peace pact among warring tribes, to resolve a dispute in the exploration and exploitation of a 950-hectare tribal mining area situated within the 8100-ha Mt. Diwalwal Mineral Reservation.

The tribes had been divided into several groups, staking claims over the area, with each group bringing along different partners and investors.

Lanes said Caya’s murder also caused apprehension among other tribal leaders as she had become the third Monkayo tribal leader to be killed in two years.

Shirley Iguanon, provincial chief of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), told the Inquirer her office was assisting the family of the slain tribal leader and that her office would be ready to help in the investigation if requested.

On July 2009, Mandaya chieftain Florelio “Liling” Andresan was ambushed by masked assailants on a road  in Monkayo. In August 2010, Datu Carlito “Namagyo” Chavez of the Dibabawon tribe was killed by a gunman while he having a snack inside a bakery in the town center.