INQUIRER FILES
COTABATO CITY 鈥� Police are tracking down three to five persons who could be behind the ambush of South Upi Vice Mayor Roldan Benito in Maguindanao del Sur on Friday, August 2, a top official in the province said.
Colonel Roel Sermese, director of the Maguindanao del Sur police, also said聽they had activated the聽Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) Benito to fast-track the investigation of the ambush that killed the vice mayor and his close aid Weng Marcos and injured his wife and 11-year old聽daughter in the town鈥檚 Barangay Pandan.
Sermese, who headed the SITG,聽which had the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG),聽the聽Regional Forensic Unit in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BAR) police office聽among its members, said they were still gathering more information and were looking towards personal grudge and land conflict as possible motives behind the attack.
Benito, a member of the Teduray-Lambangian indigenous group in South Upi, was driving his orange Mitsubishi pick-up when waylaid by the perpetrators.聽His wife Analyn, village chairperson of Pandan, South Upi, and a child were slightly hurt and are now recuperating in an undisclosed hospital.
鈥淲e are hunting down the persons of interest (POI) because they have warrants of arrest for other crimes,鈥� Sermese said but did not name names.
Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) and the forensic unit investigation聽found physical evidence in the ambush site that indicated the gunmen had positioned themselves in the area several hours before the ambush.
Mayor Reynalbert Insular said Benito never mentioned anything about threats to his life or聽his family but said聽the vice mayor聽used to be locked in a land dispute in Barangay Bahar,聽which was already settled three years back.
鈥淭he聽dispute started about 20 years聽ago but was聽already聽peacefully settled in 2021,鈥� Insular said.
Timuay Labi Leticio Datuwata, supreme leader of the Timuay Justice and Governance (TJG) of the Teduray-Lambangian tribe, said聽they regarded the killing of the vice mayor聽as聽part of the unsolved killings of Teduray leaders that continued up to the present and had something to do with聽their ancestral land.
Datuwata said more than 70 Teduray and Lambangian leaders and community members had been killed, ambushed, or massacred since the approval of Republic Act 11054, also known as the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) which created the聽Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM)聽and should have been a mechanism for inclusive peace in the聽region.
The group Justice for Roldan Benito Movement (JRBM), composed of聽Teduray and Lambangian leaders, is calling for a speedy
investigation聽of Benito and other Teduray killings in the BARMM.
鈥淲e demand actions, not merely statements of condemnations. JRBM demands accountability for his death and advocates for a safer, just community for all,鈥� said Rocky Batitao, JRBM chair.