2 Farmers Abducted By Heavily Armed Men

CAMP ELIAS ANGELES, Pili, Camarines Sur – Two farmers who are residents of Bgy Taplacon, Camalig, Albay were abducted by heavily armed men on 15 January 2010, a military officer said here today.

Major Harold Cabunoc, 9ID Spokesperson, said that on 27 January 2010, the family members of the missing persons asked the assistance of the Public Affairs Office on how to locate their missing relatives identified as Ananias Cardiente Jr and Vicente Moradillo. In a taped interview, Imelda and Faustino, siblings of Ananias, disclosed that their brother have been giving in to the extortion demand of the CPP/NPA/NDF for the past years. “We can do nothing against armed men who ask for this so-called revolutionary tax on poor farmers like us”, said Faustino. “We just followed the practice of Mr. Samson, our landlord, who used to give extortion money to the CPP/NPA/NDF”, he added.

Mrs Florentina Aquino, their aunt, also revealed that she is paying “terciong-baliktad” out of her farm products. “Out of the nine-hundred peso income, we have to pay six-hundred pesos (P600.00) to the CPP/NPA rebels”, she disclosed.

Cardiente and Moradillo were abducted by heavily armed men at around 11:00am on 15 January 2010. Aquino revealed that she herself met the ten armed men who were looking for Moradillo. “They were wearing basketball uniforms but they were carrying high-powered firearms. They introduced themselves as members of the CPP/NPA/NDF.”, Aquino said.

The police blotter in Camalig Municipal Police Station also reveals that Aquino was with a certain Melvin Magdasoc when they met the armed men who introduced themselves as NPA rebels.

On 28 January 2010, Major Harold Cabunoc, together with officers from the 22nd Infantry Battalion, accompanied Mrs Aquino and the Cardiente siblings to Bgy Taladung, Camalig, Albay to inspect all CAFGU personnel whom they suspected as behind the abduction. During the face-to-face meeting, Aquino did not find any of the 10 armed men who abducted his nephew.

“The CPP/NPA/NDF could be behind this latest abduction”, Cabunoc said. “This is a grand design to oppose the installation of CAFGU detachment in Bgy Taplacon which is a NPA influenced baranggay and a rich source of their extortion money. The communist terrorists are very good in the art of deception to influence the mind of the people”, he added.

According to Cabunoc, in 2009, thirty four (34) people were killed by the CPP/NPA/NDF’s SPARU murderers in Bicol Region. In one incident in Lubigan, Sipocot, Camarines Sur, the military was accused as behind the abduction of five (5) farmers after the NPA attack on a CAFGU detachment on 19 May 2009. It turned out later that the CPP-NPA-NDF was behind the abduction as revealed by the victims who were interviewed by ABS-CBN Naga.

Major Harold Cabunoc, spokesperson of 9ID, talks to all CAFGU personnel of Taladung Detachment in Camalig, Albay as eyewitness to the abduction looks on. Not anyone among the personnel were identified as among the armed men who abducted the two farmers.