Cops dig deeper, check claim rebs behind doc’s slay

Dreyfuss Perlas —PhilHealth Iligan

KAPATAGAN, Lanao del Norte—Police in Lanao del Norte province have started looking into the military’s claim that a breakaway communist rebel group is behind the murder of Dr. Dreyfuss Perlas, the Sapad municipal health officer who was attacked in this town last week.

Senior Supt. Faro Antonio Olaguera, provincial police director, said investigators have included among the possible leads the military’s information that Agapito Tamparong Democer, a member of the Revolutionary Proletariat Army (RPA) and a suspected gun for hire, could have been one of two suspects in Perlas’ killing.

“I have instructed my men on the ground to conduct a [deeper] investigation and validate the information before we jump into conclusions,” he said.

Olaguera said police were also checking the threats that Perlas received before his death and the circumstances behind an argument he had with a patient or a relative of a patient at Bontilao Country Hospital in Lala town to establish the possible motive in the attack.

Democer, also known as Darwin, was killed in a shootout with policemen in Barangay Bagong Silang here on March 4. He was the subject of a warrant of arrest for the murder of two persons and the wounding of another.

Lt. Col. Audie Mongao, commander of the Army’s 15th Infantry Battalion (IB), said Democer was armed and engaged the arresting officers in a firefight.

Mongao said Democer could have mistaken Perlas for a military informant.

Perlas, who first served Sapad as a volunteer of the government’s Doctor to the Barrios program before he became the town’s health officer, had joined medical missions of the 15th IB in poor communities of Lanao del Norte and had served as a medical consultant to another Army unit.

But Harold Fernandez, head of the RPA National Operational Command of Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa-Mindanao (RPM-M), said Democer, also known as Ka Ruben, had never engaged in gun-for-hire activities.

Fernandez said Democer was unarmed and was only trying to evade soldiers and policemen who were serving the warrant.

“He was alone and was only armed with a cellular phone because he was in the area to visit a friend and the masses,” Fernandez said.

“He was an active political and military cadre of the RPA since it split way from the CPP-NPA-NDFP (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines) in the early 1990s,” Fernandez said in a statement.

Lanao del Norte Gov. Imelda Dimaporo described Perlas’ killing as an isolated incident but acknowledged that it was a cause for concern.

Dimaporo, who offered a P100,000 reward for people who could provide information that would help police solve the case, directed Olaguera to give Perlas’ case special attention.

She also asked Olaguera to include the police chiefs of Kapatagan, Lala and Sapad in the investigating team.

In Davao City, the health group, Rx for Peace, joined calls for justice for Perlas and for other doctors who were killed while serving the country’s poor communities.

Dr. Jean Lindo, a member of the group, said she hoped the incident would “inspire more doctors to work for the marginalized than cower in fear.” —WITH A REPORT FROM KARLOS MANLUPIG