Arrest warrants recalled vs Northern Luzon activists linked by cops to lumad killing

BAGUIO CITY—A court in Tagum City, Davao del Norte province recalled the warrants of arrest it issued in 2020 for five activists in Northern Luzon who had been implicated by police in the murder of a lumad activist in 2018.

In a Feb. 19 order, Judge Sharon Rose Saracin, of Tabuk City Regional Trial Court Branch 30, granted the separate motions filed by Windel Bolinget, Lutgardo Jurcales Jr., Jackie Valencia, Agnes Mesina and Reynaldo Garneng for reinvestigation and suspension of the arrest warrants issued against them.

Bolinget is chair of Baguio-based militant Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) while his co-accused belong to various groups in the Cagayan Valley region.

Police accused Bolinget and the other activists of killing Garito Tiklonay Malibato, a member of the lumad community, on March 21, 2018.

Malibato, 23, had been defending his ancestral home against large-scale plantations before he was abducted and gunned down at the village of Gupitan, in Kapalong town, Davao del Norte.

According to the CPA, Malibato and his organization Karadyawan had been Red-tagged by the military.

Malibato’s relatives and Karadyawan said they believed that Alamara, a paramilitary group linked to the military, was responsible for the killing of Malibato, CPA said in an earlier statement.

Bolinget has been named in a “shoot-to-kill” order issued by the police in Cordillera should he resist arrest.

This prompted Bolinget to seek custody at the National Bureau of Investigation here for his security.

The judge also ordered the provincial prosecutor of Davao Del Norte to reinvestigate the complaints against the accused activists and to submit a report 30 days from notice.

TSB