killing of an Ilonggo settler during a clash with a group of
indigenous peoples or "lumads" in a remote village in Antipas town in
North Cotabato last Friday.
Insp. Conrado Juvero, chief of Antipas police, said when they arrived
at the area where the fighting took place, nobody would tell the
police who killed Herman Orhen, leader of the masked men that earlier
attacked Sitio Alibayon, Barangay New Pontevedra in Antipas.
Orhen, according to Juvero, was hacked to death.
Juvero said witnesses were pointing to a certain Danny Herbolingo,
leader of the Ubo-Manobos that killed Orhen.
Herbolingo, however, was nowhere in sight when the police arrived in
the area three hours after the clash.
The lumads told Juvero it was Orhen that torched the house of Eddie
Villote and killed Rodel Awug, 12, at around 11 a.m. on Friday.
"The boy witnessed the torching of Villote's house so he was killed by
Orhen's group so it won't leave any trace," said one of the witnesses.
Awug was the son of Reymundo Awug, also known in the village as
'Kumander Malitud.'
The attack last Friday, according to the Apo Sandawa Lumadnong
Panaghiusa sa Cotabato (ASLPC), was caused by a land conflict.
The ASLPC, a group of natives in North Cotabato, conducted a
fact-finding mission in the area a day after the incident.
The ASLPC said both the lumads and the settlers are claiming they own
the 2,000 hectares of land in Barangay New Pontevedra.
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