Davao City – Vengeance was the motive behind the killing of a 15-year old lumad student on Monday in Sitio Laslasakan, Barangay Palma Gil, Talaingod town, Davao del Norte, a nearest kin of the victim told reporters here last Tuesday.
Alibando Tingkas, 15 was walking on his way home with two other companions when they were fired upon by a certain Joven Salangani. Tingkas died on the spot while his two companions managed to escape unharmed.
Datu Lumansad Sibugan, grandfather of the victim and a tribal leader of Ata-Manobo tribe in Talaingod, said the killing was the result of a family feud.
Sibugan said Salangani was the cousin of a man who was killed last Sunday by Luib Daus, alias Bagani; Dalahis Manlulugpis, alias Carlos; and Tudtud Ladahay. The three are reportedly cousins of Tingkas and were said to be active members of the New People’s Army (NPA) belonging to guerrilla front 55 of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee (SMRC).
Sibugan emphasized that Joven was not a member of Alamara group as claimed by the Save Our School Network (SOS Network) which earlier issued a statement condemning the killing of Tingkas.
“We are enraged and saddened by this incident. The paramilitary group and their military cohorts will not stop from attacking and even killing lumads in the name of their counter-insurgency operations, even children are not spared anymore” said Rius Valle, spokesperson of the group.
SOS Network said witnesses in the area positively identified Joven as Tingkas’ killer and that he was a member of the Alamara paramilitary group with connections to the military in the area.
The group also claimed that Tingkas was a student of a Salugpungan school in the area.
The claim of SOS was also denied by Sibugan, saying that Tingkas has stopped going to school for two years.
“He stopped attending school at Salugpungan after he and some of his classmates were brought to Monkayo in Compostela Valley and were asked by the NPAs to carry firearms,” Sibugan claimed.
No comments:
Post a Comment