US Pinoy militants misinformed on Bohol woman's slay

TAGBILARAN CITY – “Baseless. A lie.” This was Col. Arthur Tabaquero's reaction to the allegations and imputations of Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Lisa Maza ran by the Manila Bulletin in its Saturday, April 8 issue. Tabaquero is the commanding officer of the Army's 302nd Brigade based in Barangay Katipunan in Carmen, Bohol.

“These activists can scream all they want to demand justice for Inday Estorba's death. They can demand all they want for the conviction of the assailant responsible for her death. But they have no right to condemn or convict President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo over her death. They need not look all the way to Malacañang to identify her assailant,” he said. “The suspect is just a next-door neighbor whose house is a mere 30 meters from the victim's house,” he explained.

The press release quoted Maza as saying that the bloody murder of Estorba has shattered the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-USA and all other Filipino activists working to expose repression and exploitation of people in the motherland. “Inday Estorba, for being an active Gabriela member and an advocate of women's rights, has been identified as a target of Arroyo's military,” Maza said. She believes that Malacañang made an example out of Estorba, she added. But Tabaquero says Maza believed wrong.

“She could not be blinded more by misinformation local militants have been feeding her,” he said. To note, local press releases claimed that the suspect is a military informer or “asset.” Candijay Mayor Sergio Amora Jr. was quick to belie this claim. Amora expressed surprise when Cebu and Bohol media interviewed him by telephone regarding the incident.

He was all the more surprised when the Fact-Finding Team of the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) also went to Barangay Panadtaran where the “warring couples” lived, to interview witnesses. The team also interviewed the suspect's wife Gazeela Ortega-Bayron who submitted herself to police custody for fear of reprisal from the Estorbas and the Cuñados.

Liezelda was a daughter of Cesar Estorba, a former leader of the Hugpong sa mga Mag-uumang Bol-anon (Humabol), the umbrella organization of farmers groups in Bohol and an affiliate of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP). He is believed to have gone underground since the early ‘90s.

“Are they [Liezelda Estorba-Cuñado and husband Gerry, suspect Joel Bayron and wife Gazeela] already that famous?” he said. It was just a quarrel between two couples – relatives at that as Joel and Lkiezelda are cousins – over noise from a videoke session at the Bayron house that lasted into the wee hours of April 3 that provoked the shooting, Amora said.

Prior to that, however, they had spats over irritating text messages Liezelda sent to Joel and the damage to a coconut tree owned by the Cuñados hit by a tipolo tree owned by the Bayrons that the latter had felled, the mayor and Gazeela said. “It was an ordinary crime incident,” the mayor concluded.

Liezelda may be municipal coordinator of Gabriela and Gerry may be municipal coordinator of Bayan Muna but Joel was never a member of the Barangay Information Network (BIN), nor was he a military asset, he said.

Fact-finding team

Romeo Teruel, Gov. Erico Aumentado's chief of staff, headed the fact-finding team. Interviewing Gazeela at the Candijay Police Office, they learned that her husband became restless early dawn of April 3 after one of their guests who had repaired the microphones of their videoke was hit by hardened mud in the face. When she dashed to the window where it came from, she saw Gerry running from their yard, making her conclude that Gerry threw the hardened mud.

Gazeela went to the Cuñado's house and demanded for a confrontation with Liezelda. Gerry came out and asked why she accused him in throwing hardened mud. She admitted that in her anger, she let out unnecessary expletives. Her mother-in-law who lives nearby reprimanded and ordered them to go home. She went inside their room, thinking that Joel would follow her. When he did not, she went out of their house and saw him just outside the Cuñado's fence.

Gazeela said Joel told Gerry to leave it to the women to settle their differences. While she and Liezelda traded barbs, she heard gunshots coming from behind. Realizing that it was Joel who fired the shots, she tried to hold his arm to stop him but he fired again. As she saw Liezelda fall to the ground, she cried for help.

Joel fled on motorcycle but called her that day to say that he will surrender to the police soon. Liezelda was hit on the left chest and died in a hospital in Candijay. Gerry sustained two gunshot wounds – one on his lower right arm and another near his right armpit, and was rushed to the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital in Tagbilaran City for treatment. Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Cirilo Thomas Donato, commanding officer of the 15th Infantry Battalion based in Barangay Riverside in Bilar town, as well as 1Lt. Noel Caibigan both said the suspect was not involved in any military networks.

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