Rebels own up to raid on mayor’s home

DIGOS CITY, Philippines—Communist rebels said the house of a town mayor in Davao Occidental yielded a cache of firearms during a rebel raid on Sunday, showing the mayor to be a “warlord.”

The rebels owned up to the raid on the house of Mayor James Joyce, of Jose Abad Santos town, Davao Occidental.

In a statement on Monday, the National Democratic Front (NDF)-Far South Mindanao Command, said members of the New People’s Army’s Alex Ababa Command carried out the raid on Joyce’s house in Barangay (village) Culaman and seized a cache of high-powered firearms.

Efren Aksasato, spokesperson of the NDF command, said the rebels seized not only shotguns but assault rifles and other weapons that would show Joyce was maintaining a private army.

A police report on the raid said the rebels seized 16 homemade shotguns.

The NDF statement said the rebels did seize four shotguns and also an M203 grenade launcher, an M-16 Armalite rifle, two cal. 30 Carbines, two M-14 rifles, a .38 cal. handgun and several rounds of ammunition.

“The attack was planned to punish Joyce, who is a political warlord and and a counterrevolutionary,” the NDF statement said.

Aksasato said the mayor’s private army is being used against civilians with the blessing of the military.

Joyce faces criminal offenses, such as land grabbing and murder, at the revolutionary court, he said.

Joyce could not be reached for comment but a military report said the mayor’s guards were peace and development volunteers.

Davao del Sur Gov. Claude Bautista, taking up the cudgels for the mayor, denied that Joyce was a warlord.

He said the mayor’s guards are members of the town’s civil security force, who help maintain peace and order there.

“Like other NPA atrocities in the province, this (NPA raid) could not be justified and is an assault on civilians,” Bautista said.

On Aug. 12, 2012, Joyce’s ownership of firearms also caught the attention of the National Bureau of Investigation.

During a raid by the NBI then, Joyce’s men yielded high-powered firearms such as AK47s.

The mayor was subsequently sued for illegal possession of firearms but it was dismissed at the prosecutor’s level after he presented documents that showed his ownership of the combat weapons was legal. Eldie Aguirre, Inquirer Mindanao