NPA confirms ‘arrest’ of Agusan Sur miner

Rosario town in Agusan del Sur (Wikipedia maps)

SAN FRANCICO, Agusan del Sur — Communist rebels in the Caraga region have confirmed that they took a well-known miner on Saturday morning as a punitive action for a long record of abuses.

Ka Ariel Montero, spokesperson of Regional Operational Command of the New People’s Army’s Northeastern Mindanao Region, said Carson Ceasar “Abud” Lademora was taken by their comrades along with his aide Leonardo Cacao from his mine site in Sitio Sinug-ang in Rosario town.

The guerillas also seized 21 firearms when they raided the mine site owned by the Lademora family.

Lademora is the youngest son of the late Philippine Constabulary colonel Carlos Lademora, the leader of the dreaded Lost Command, whose reign in this town in the dark years of 1980s sowed terror and fear among residents here.

“Through the continuing control of said armed forces and the remaining notorious Lost Command forces, the Lademora family monopolized mining in Sinug-ang, Bayugan 3 and deprived other people of livelihood. Residents feared the existence of said armed group controlled by the Lademoras,” Montero said.

He said the Lademora siblings continued to abuse the people and that his arrest was carried out so that he could be investigated while under their custody.  SFM