The tight congressional race in the second district between come backing former congressman Roberto Cajes and political upstart Aris Aumentado has reached boiling point as the protagonists were caught Thursday in a fierce exchange of nasty rhetoric bordering on violent threats. The heir apparent of the late congressman Erico Aumentado drew first blood over his opponent after he accused him of threatening his supporters in a house-to-house capers especially in the islands using policemen belonging to the Trinidad police station. Cajes is the incumbent mayor of Trinidad. In a radio interview over Station DYRD Thursday, the young Aumentado identified the policemen as P01 Dante Vincent A. Auxtero, PO1 Anileto A. Autentico, Senior Insp. Narcio C. Abapo and a certain Jerry Bunado. According to Aumentado, these Cajes men allegedly “harassed” his supporters in the island barangays.

The young candidate also identified Senior Inspector Narciso Abapo, chief of police of Loay town who is from Calituban in Talibon as having threatened Aumentado’s supporters if they will not vote for Cajes. The police official, however, denied, having “moonlighted” for Cajes, in the same radio interview. Sought of his reaction, Cajes branded Aumentado’s protestation asking look! who’s talking. In accusing him, the former congressman likened Aumentado as calling the “kettle as black pot”. In effect, Cajes returned the favor by accusing his opponent of the same offenses—threatening his own supporters to vote for the young candidate using Aris’ bodyguards. The heated swap of ugly barbs of the two candidates in Bohol’s second district capped an otherwise volatile situation in a turf they are contesting for congressional supremacy.

Of the 14 towns in the second district, three are considered as election hotspots where killings were reported as a result of the intense rivalry of Cajes and Aumentado and their respective mayoralty candidates like in Trinidad, Buenavista and Talibon. In fact, in an open letter signed by gubernatorial candidate Che Toribio de los Reyes, congressional candidate Dan Lim and Aumentado addressed to Pres. Pnoy, the troika lamented the worsening peace and order situation in the second district describing in details the unabated killings of supporters of the congressional substitute of the late congressman Aumentado. A chronology of killings showed the following: Last March 17, 2013, Percival “Bebot” Sebua, 48, an incumbent barangay councilman of Bonotbonot, Buenavista and a candidate for Sangguniang Bayan of the same town under the National People’s Coalition, was shot dead by three unidentified armed men while on his way to his rice field. Nearly 20 days before him, Barangay Capt. Danilo Torrejas, 41, of Cawag, Buenavista town was found dead in the ricefield he was tilling. Like Barangay Councilman Sebua, Barangay Captain Torrejas was aligned with incumbent Mayor Ronald Lowell Tirol who is running for reelection under the Nationalist People’s Coalition. Barangay Capt. Torrejas was mercilessly shot and killed early in the morning while he was on his way to the rice field. These two gruesome murders were not the first ones.

At least 10 murders reported in Buenavista town since January 2012 have remained unsolved up to this time. In Barangay Cawag alone, three murders have been reported since July 2012. The fourth victim was the barangay captain himself, barangay captain Torrejas. Believed to be politically motivated, the killings according to the open letter seems aimed to condition the minds of the people that more deaths are to be expected and these killings now have become a way of life so they have to get used to it. Less than a week after the murder of barangay councilor Sebua, an incumbent Talibon Municipal Councilor Gherson Dulang, 54, was shot and killed in barangay Tanghaliue, Talibon town. Although he was running for reelection under the Liberal Party, Councilor Dulang had started negotiations to shift political alliance to the opposition slate in Talibon. If not for his untimely death, his offer to jump ship to the NPC coalition ticket in Talibon town would have materialized going into the official campaign period for candidates for local positions.

In Danao town, a municipal employee named Walter Melencion, 43, was shot and killed with a .45 caliber pistol in barangay Sta. Fe last October 23 2011 which turned out to be the precursor of other violent incidents in the town. On January 23, 2012 lawyer Dodelon Sabejon, Danao legal management consultant, was shot by a lone gunman as he was on his way to his law office in Tagbilaran City. Sabejon, who is also the Dean of Criminology at the University of Bohol, successfully evaded his attacker although he was hit on the lower abdomen and had to undergo medical procedure. Last June 12, 2012, Reynaldo Duavis, Jr., 24, a security guard of Gonzaga Legacy, was riding on his motorcycle from the Poblacion going to barangay Magtangtang when three unidentified persons fired simultaneously at him.

He was working for a mini-hydro project in barangay Cantakoy which has been opposed by the mayor’s rivals. By a stroke of luck, he survived but he was among the few exceptions. On September 10, 2012, Mario Roldan Torres was shot while he was on his way to Inabanga town proper. Torres was a liaison of Cantakoy Power Plant and a trusted man of Danao Mayor Louis Thomas Gonzaga like Melencion, Sabejon, and Duavis. Mayor Gonzaga, who is running for vice mayor after serving his last of his three terms, is running under the United Nationalist Alliance. Just last March 29, 2013, a 41 year old man claiming to be a security guard was arrested in a checkpoint in barangay Sta. Fe, Danao. The suspect identified as one Leocadio Estorgio, Jr. who was divested of a caliber .45 Colt pistol turned out to be the same man who has been harassing the supporters of Danao Mayor Louis Thomas Gonzaga in barangay Carbon.

FRESH FLARE UP OF VIOLENCE

While the killings in the second district took place in successive fashion the past months , violence flared up again in the towns of Inabanga, Danao and Getafe although Buenavista is still the most violent-prune municipality. Over the week, the town saw the arrest of mayoralty candidate Alfonso del Rosario, father-in-law of Mayor Cajes. A combined police and military personnel served a search warrant in the compound of the mayoralty candidate yielding for the raiding party a cache of high-powered ammunitions, including 40 of .30 caliber carbine ammos, 159 for .60 caliber, 22 pieces for.30 cal. , 181 pieces for 5.56 cal., one piece for Flash Suppressor, one long magaize of KG-9, one piece silencer for .45 cal. Pistol, and one .9mm bullet. The raid in the del Rosario farm house in barangay Upper Cangawa was triggered by the slaying of a CAFGU member identified as one Ruel Torregosa. He was in plain clothes when killed. He was ambushed together with another civilian auxiliary member identified to be working for the candidacy of Buenavista Mayor Tirol.

This violent incident over the week was followed with the murder of Mariano Suello of Causmundo, Getafe town, while his companion identified as Lauron Anon also of the same town was also wounded in the attack resulting in his confinement in a hospital in this city. The latest incident to shatter the already fragile peace and order situation in the second district happened when a certain Junry Socias said to a follower of Getafe mayoralty candidate Casey Camacho was gunned down by still unknown perpetrators. Over in Trinidad, a quarry operator identified as Pablo Molos and said to be under the camp of Cajes was a victim of a grenade throwing incident resulting in his death several days after the attack. He was a candidate for councilor under the ticket of Judith Cajes, former mayor of the town. After the death of Dulang, a candidate for councilor in Talibon, a strafing incident took place in the house of former mayor Juanario Item.

In a radio interview last Thursday, Item admitted being a victim of the strafing incident resulting in the damage of the gate of his in barangay San Agustin. Although Item was yet to identify the culprit of the shooting, Aumentado made no pretense of his suspicion that it was perpetrated by the camp of his opponent. Aumentado theorized that the strafing was related to an earlier intelligence report indicating that a former police officer working for his candidacy would be liquidated. The report traced to Item as the likely victim of the assassination attempt knowing his former police background. Although Item is not running for any position in Talibon, he is actively campaigning for the candidacy of mayoralty candidate Carlos Valmoria Evangelista, Aumentado’s candidate for mayor in Talibon. This candidate is pitted against incumbent Talibon Mayor Restituto Auxtero, a Cajes protégée. Vote-rich Inabanga was not spared of its share of violent incidents.

 A police report reaching the Post showed that barangay chairman Rogelio Angco of the island barangay of Cuaming was reported to have been abducted by still unidentified armed men while making a roving of his jurisdiction with his tanods past 8 PM of Tuesday.  The victim said to be a supporter of mayoralty bet Josephine Socorro Jumamoy, was blindfolded and brought to the nearby island barangay of Cabul-an in Buenavista. He was later released however, somewhere in barangay Caboy, Clarin town, a town adjacent to Inabanga.

 CAFGU SLAY 

The latest casualty in the Tirol-del Rosario rivalry resulting in the death of a CAFGU member was an offshoot of the presence of armed men who were reportedly shot at while driving a motorcycle as they passed infront of the house of the former Buenavista mayor.   Torregosa was the son of barangay chair Alberto Torregosa of Overland of Buenavista, who is a supporter of Mayor Ronald Lowell Tirol.  A day before Torregosa’s killing, former police officer Gregorio Jumao-as, said to be a runner of incumbent Mayor Tirol, was shot to death by three unidentified gunmen in barangay Hinabonan of this town, police report said. The victim, alias “Onyong,” married and former member of the municipal environment body sustained multiple wounds on his body, the report said. The victim was driving his motorcycle in barangay Poblacion on his way home and upon reaching the mangrove area he was shot to death without provocation, the report said. Another report said that police authorities here theorized that the victim’s killing has something to do with politics but this was not independently verified as investigators are still determining the motive of the killing.

Meanwhile, the Trinidad grenade throwing caper was perpetrated by motorcycle-riding men who fled towards the neighboring town of San Miguel, also of the second congressional district. The motive of the grenade throwing was still unknown until this writing as police probers are still facing a blank wall including the identity of the perpetrators.  Molos was reported to be at odds with the Hugpong Mag-uumang Bol-anon (HUMABOL), a militant peasant organization affiliated with Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) due to his alleged illegal quarry and washery operations for earth materials extracted in the hinterland barangays. HUMABOL alleged that his quarry and rock-crushing operations should be stopped since they destroyed the environment and making the Kinan-oan River the main source of irrigation of the farmers polluted.  HUMABOL, in a statement, denied a hand in the grenade-lobbing against Molos. It said it condemns the act of violence against the councilor. (With reports of RVO)