CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/ 30 January) – Police presented Tuesday two leaders of militant groups here after their organizations raised an alarm that both went missing last Monday.
PNP northern Mindanao spokesperson Supt. Surki Serenas tagged Ireneo Udarbe and Datu Jomorito Goaynon as “top New People’s Army leaders” allegedly responsible for the attack of the police station in Binuangan town, Misamis Oriental last Dec. 2, 2017.
Goaynon is the chair of Kalumbay Regional Lumad Organization while Udarbe is the chair of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)-Northern Mindanao.
Serenas said police seized firearms, fragmentation grenades and subversive documents from the two suspects when they were arrested.
He said Ubarde and Goaynon were arrested on the strength of a warrant of arrest issued by Judge Emmanuel Pasal of Regional Trial Court branch 38 for four counts of attempted murder and frustrated murder.
“They are not missing. Ubarde and Goayon were arrested at Barangay Patag by virtue of a court-issued arrest warrant,” he said.
Earlier, Kalumbay and KMP-Northern Mindanao raised an alarm that Udarbe and Goaynon went missing after they left their office in Barangay Bulua, Cagayan de Oro City Monday morning.
KMP-Northern Mindanao spokesperson Michael Pineda said the two were supposed to meet with officers of another organization, Pig-uyonan which had scheduled a dialogue on Monday with the 65th Infantry Battalion facilitated by the Commission on Human Rights.
Pineda said the two did not make it to the meeting.
He said Goaynon was the subject of an “anti-red smear campaign” through tarps accusing him of recruiting Lumad to the NPA.
Meanwhile, Iglesia Filipina Independiente Bishop Felixberto Calang decried the painting of “anti-red slogans” on the walls of their churches in Cagayan de Oro and Pagadian cities.
He said the graffiti are malicious and aimed to foster hatred against their church. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)