Rebel group disowns ‘wanted person’

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – The Mt. Cansermon Command – New People’s Army (MCC-NPA) South Central Negros Guerrilla Front has dismissed the accusation by authorities against an alleged wanted person linking him to the rebel group in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental.

In a statement dated August 2, Ka Dionesio Magbuelas, MCC-NPA spokesperson, said the statement of the military forces and the local police tagging 68-year-old Lodorico But-ay, alias “Jude,” as commanding officer of the NPA’s Yunit Militia was malicious.

But-ay was arrested at Sitio Cunalom, Barangay Carabalan on August 29, by virtue of an arrest warrant for rape charges.

Judge Walter Zorilla of Regional Trial Court Branch 55 issued the warrant.

The rebel group said But-ay is a farmer and member of the Farmers Association of Barangay Carabalan (FABCA).

He is also a member of the Indigenous People (IP), has no bad record with the residents, and has no link with the NPA, according to Magbuelas.

Magbuelas said the government forces just wanted to put the name of the NPA in a bad light.

“Gusto sang militar kag kapulisan nga pahiran sang higko ang ngalan sang NPA paagi sa pagkriminalisa sa ila mga dinakpan,” he said.

Kon matuod gid man nga may kaso nga rape si But-ay, mas nagakaangay lang nga ipaagi ini sa husto kag nagakaigo nga proseso (due process) sa korte, he added.

Meanwhile, Captain Mervin Rosal, civil military operations officer of the 303rd Infantry Brigade (IBde), said that affidavits of the witnesses do not lie, especially But-ay’s former comrades.

“Let the police and the due process decide. It’s all about the invented propaganda of the NPA,” he added.