Slain IP leader’s son cries for justice

Slain IP leader’s son cries for justice P ovincial News

By Jennifer P. Gaitano

BUTUAN CITY - The family of Datu Bontula Tinaghao Mansinugdan, an Indigenous People (IP) leader in a village in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur, welcomed the new year with grief as they learned the killing of their family member by the Communist Party of the Philippines - New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).

Datu Bontula was found dead near the Kinabonglohan Creek, Barangay Kinamaybay, Esperanza, Agusan del Sur on January 1 after he was shot dead by the terrorist CPP-NPA. At his young age, Gali – not his real name, an 11-year old son of Datu Bontula, accompanied by their punong barangay asked for help from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and the national government and pleaded for justice to be served for the untimely death of his father. forcibly tied his father and abducted them.

He was also saddened to recall that one of the NPA members who called his father “bayaw” or brother-inlaw did not help them.

While Gali was recounting the details to the media, he also stressed that he would never forget how his father suffered from the hands of the NPA, and he would fulfill his dream to become a soldier when he grows up, so he could protect his tribe.

Gali could not accept and understand until this time as to why the CPP-NPA inhumanely killed his father. He was with Datu Bontula on December 31, 2019, when the terrorist group had Meanwhile, NCIP Caraga Regional Director Ferdausi Saniel Cerna said that the Commission and other concerned agencies will give the needed assistance to the bereaved January 18-24, 2020 Caraga Infocus 20