Cordillera Cops To Sue NPAs In Anti-corruption Advocate Murder

BAGUIO CITY  (September 10, 2020) –  Cordillera police is suing New Peoples Army leaders in Mt. Province in connection with the September 2 murder of a staunch anti-corruption advocate and a barangay kagawad.

This after the Mt. Province-based Leonardo Pacsi Command of the CPP-NPA issued a statement Wednesday implying it was behind the murder of Salvador Liked, secretary general of the Citizen Crime Watch-Cordillera (CCW-Cordillera) in Balintaugan, Bauko town.

“We have many witnesses,” vowed Cordillera police director RWin Pagkalinawan, promising criminal charges against identified leaders of the NPA in Mt. Province.  He though did not name yet the said rebel leaders, pending formal complaints to be lodged against the NPA Mt. Province leaders.

Liked just came out of their house being constructed when felled down at around 8:55PM on September 2 by supposed two 45 caliber pistol armed assassins who rushed from the scene after making sure he was dead.

“Ka Magno Udyaw”, spokesperson of the Mt.Province NPA Command in a statement said, “(Liked’s death) ended his landgrabbing and blackmailing victimizing our “kakailian” (villagemates) in Mt. Province.”

Udyaw claimed they have “been receiving from locals reports of landgrabbing in the areas between Bauko and Sagada perpetrated by Liked and his cohorts in the bureaucracy.”   Clans and families had supposedly fallen victim to his schemes.   Liked even “donated” to a public utility a parcel of land he had grabbed,  the NPA spokesperson said.   “He also attempted to privatize a communal water source to sell water to the municipality of Bauko.”

“While Liked put up an anti-corruption stance as he delved into purportedly anomalous deals and practices, his sincerity towards combating bureaucratic corruption and government ineptitude had been questionable, given that he chose to enter into settlements and even resorted to blackmailing and antisocial activities, instead of pursuing those cases,”  Udyaw of the NPA Mt. Province claimed.

Udyaw said they had reached out to Liked in 2018, warned him to stop his landgrabbing schemes, and advised him to sincerely pursue the graft and corruption cases he had filed in order to convict abusive officials in government,   “but he continued with his modus operandi even when he became a barangay councilor.”

Artemio A. Dumlao

Amianan Balita Ngayon