Mayor, son found dead 11 hours after their abduction

BUTUAN CITY – Eleven hours after they were abducted, the bodies of Mayor Dario E. Otaza, peppered with bullet wounds, and his son Daryl, with one bullet in the chest, were found early Tuesday morning in Barangay Bitan-agan, some 15 kilometers south of this city.

Members of the military and police had pursued leads to that area in Purok 2 and found the bodies at about 5 a.m. yesterday. They confirmed that the two

dead bodies were of Otaza, 53, mayor of Loreto town in Agusan del Sur and his son Daryl, 23.

The mayor, his white T-shirt bathed with blood from multiple bullet wounds, was lying about 40 meters from the body of Daryl who was hit by a lone bullet in the chest. Police believe that the gunshot wounds came from M-16 Armalite rifles and handguns.

‘To settle a score’ At Camp Crame, Director General Ricardo Marquez, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), confirmed that Otaza was a former communist rebel but became very active in counterinsurgency campaign.

Intelligence officials said the NPA immediately surfaced as the principal suspect in the kidnap-slay, saying that the killing of Otaza was meant to settle a score over the mayor’s support to the military’s anti-insurgency operations.

Abduction

The deaths were confirmed at a press conference at the Butuan City mayor’s office yesterday, Oct. 20, by military and police officials.

The mayor and his son were forcibly taken by at least 10 unidentified armed men believed to be members of the NPA from their home at Purok 5, Barangay Baan, this city at 6:35 p.m. on Monday. They were loaded into a van which was later found at the outskirt of New Gingoog, in Esperanza town, Agusan del Sur.

“Our ground troops and the police are still conducting a pursuit operation against the fleeing perpetrators,” said Col. Alexander L. Macario, commanding officer of the Army 401st Infantry Brigade based in Awa, New Leyte, Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur.

We condemn this dastardly act and we ask the police and military to hunt down without let up the perpetrators,” said Agusan del Sur Gov. Adolph Edward G. Plaza.

Plaza activated yesterday the provincial crisis management committee to tackle the killing of Mayor Otaza and his son. Leading the meeting was the governor, who is also the provincial crisis management committee (PCMC) chairman.

In hit list Otaza, a reelectionist for the second term, running under the National Unity Party was running unopposed in the 2016 elections.

Interviews with Supt. Martin M. Gamba and Capt. Joe Patrick A. Martinez, regional police spokesman and Army spokesman, respectively, disclosed that Otaza, was in the target list of the NPA for being anti-communist. Otaza was a former rebel and a tribal elder of the Manobo indigenous people’s group.

He said since he surrendered and later became mayor of Loreto, Otaza became a supporter of government programs.

Serbisyo Caravan leader Maj. Gen. Oscar T. Lactao, commanding general of the Army’s Northeastern and Northern Mindanao 4th Infantry (Diamond) Division said Mayor Otaza was a local partner of the national government’s ‘Serbisyo Caravan’ and peace and development program. “We strongly condemned this brutal and fatal execution of the mayor,” he said.

The mayor had led a recent caravan where 154 NPA rebels surrendered. He then put up programs to give the rebel returnees the necessary support in going back into mainstream society, he said.

Several NPA rebels who enjoy kinship with Mayor Otaza have indicated a desire to reenter formal society because of the mayor’s integrity, credibility, and the success of his programs. One of those programs is the utilization of the more than 10,000 hectares for agricultural development.

“The mayor’s program will coincide with our upland economic development

program,” said Gov. Plaza.

DILG statement

Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento yesterday condemned the murder of Mayor Otaza and his son Daryl. He lauded Otaza, who used to be a member of the NPA, for his valiant efforts in working against the armed group.

He became instrumental in making sure that former armed group members get enough benefits when they decide to help the government,” said Sarmiento.

Our countrymen can be rest assured that the government will do everything it can to see to it that the victims get their justice,” he said.

A non-combatant

Meanwhile, Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) chief Lt. Gen. Aurelio B. Baladad said the military is now tracking down the NPA bandits who brutally killed Otaza and his son.

Baladad said the victims were hogtied and their bodies bore multiple gunshot wounds.

“We would like to emphasize (that) Mayor Otaza is a non-combatant, (he is a) civilian government official, so basically his killing is already a violation of the principle of distinction, (of) International Humanitarian Law, they should be separated, on who is a combatant or non-combatant, even worse, his son is even more of a civilian than him,” said Baladad.

Peace advocate

The Eastmincom chief noted that the elder Otaza was a former NPA member turned peace-advocate who was instrumental in the surrender of 154 NPA members in Agusan del Sur last year.

Moreover, he facilitated the delivery of government services to indigenous peoples or Lumad communities, he added. As mayor and member of the Provincial Tribal Council in Agusan Del Sur, Otaza also liberated his town from NPA exploitation and manipulation.

The military further said that under his leadership, development has started to set-in in his town of Loreto benefiting his constituents.

Baladad said that they are looking at members of the NPA’s Guerrilla Front 48 as suspects behind the Otazas’ abduction and killing, adding that they now have sketches of the 18 rebels who abducted the victims.

NPA operation

At Camp Crame, Marquez said: “That is the first impression (that it was NPA rebels who did it). As I always say, we have yet to finish the investigation but from the looks of it, it appears that they were involved,” said Marquez in an interview at Camp Crame.

Marquez admitted that such a case was not the first time, noting that they have talked with many former communist rebels in the past who volunteered to help the government in the campaign against the rebels.

In almost all cases, Marquez said those people appear to know that they are already marked for death by the NPA.

“When you are able to talk to these people you will be amazed by their resolve that in spite of the challenges, these former rebels would stand up and fight against the system that was first introduced to them,” said Marquez.

So far, Marquez said he had already sent a top police official to assess the security situation in Loreto town, especially the security of the family of the slain Mayor.

“If they would request for it, we will give them security,” said Marquez. (With reports from Elena L. Aben, Czarina Nicole O. Ong, and Aaron Recuenco)