BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
ILOILO – A former member of the New People’s Army with ties to the slain brother of retired Archbishop Fernando Capalla was shot dead at the boundary of barangays Mañacabac and Danao in Janiuay town.
Dionisio Garete, 57, of Brgy. Aquino Nobleza West, Janiuay was declared dead on arrival at the Janiuay District Hospital after he was shot around 9:30 a.m. yesterday.
He was on his way to his sugarcane plantation in Brgy. Danao onboard his pick-up when attacked, according to Senior Insp. Felix Alianza, Janiuay police chief.
Garete was a member of the Badiangan-Janiuay Farmers Association that supplies muscovado (brown sugar) to the Panay Fair Trade Center (PFTC) of which the late Romeo Capalla was chairman of the board.
Capalla, a former political detainee and younger brother of Davao Archbishop Emeritus Capalla, was gunned down early evening of March 15 in the public market of Oton, Iloilo.
His PFTC helps farmers and women organizations produce and sell natural and organic products for local and international markets.
Janiuay police investigators have yet to determine the motives of Garete’s attackers.
“We are closely coordinating with Garete’s family and relatives for information that could help our investigation,” Alianza told Panay News.
According to urban poor group Kadamay Panay, PFTC and its network of muscovado mills are targets of military surveillance and harassment.
A muscovado mill in Brgy. Dabong, Janiuay, also a network of PFTC, was in fact torched hours after Capalla was shot.
Progressive groups and allies of Capalla believed that the military was behind his assassination. The Armed Forces of the Philippines, however, denied this.
Empty shells of caliber .45 pistol and 12-guage shotgun were recovered from the spot where Garete was shot.
“The perpetrators remain unidentified because nobody saw the incident,” Alianza said.
Capalla was arrested by policemen and soldiers in August 2005 in Brgy. San Antonio, Oton town and was detained for 32 days for allegedly taking part in an attack by the NPA rebels on a field office of a construction firm in Guimbal, Iloilo in 2004.
But the Regional Trial Court Branch 67 in Guimbal ordered Capalla’s release on September 5, 2005 for lack of evidence.
More than two months since Capalla’s killing, justice has not been served yet to his family.
Reylan Vergara, secretary-general of human rights alliance Karapatan, expressed dismay on the way police is handling the case.
The police had filed a murder case against a suspect, Julie Gabino, but the militants were unconvinced.
“The filing of a case is not a guarantee or assurance that justice would be served,” Vergara told Panay News.
Gabino remains at large.
“Pagkatapos nga nag-file sila case against Gabino, nag-stop na sila sang ila investigation,” Vergara lamented./PN
