TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol Sept 22 (PIA) –A narrative that radical organizations readily resort to, when confronted with accusations that they are exploiting lumads and indigenous communities in their protracted war against the government takes a revealing twist in Bohol.
This as the Commanding Officer of the 302nd Brigade of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division confirmed the identity of a certain Rogelio Jorillo as that of Sulong Kalipunan ng Mga Katribu’ng Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (Katribu) tribu partylist’s third nominee and leading human rights activist Kerlan Fanagel.
Fanagel, unknown to many, was among the six armed communist terrorists slain after a 3 hour gun-during a battle government troop’s peace and security operations in Sitio Ilaud, Barangay Campagao, Bilar Bohol, September 7, confirms Army Brigadier General Joe Escanillas, during a Peace and Security Press Conference held at the Capitol’s Ceremonial Hall last Tuesday.
General Escanillas’ confirmation was further corroborated by a former New People’s Army cadre who, like Fanagel, used the lumad communities and tribal schools of Southern Mindanao as a seedbed for dissent and prime recruitment for young communist terrorist warm bodies.
Reports also said Fanagel sits as the secretary general of the Pasakaday Salugpungan Kalimudan (Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao) and the Regghional Urban Commtee of NPAS in Southern Mindanao as well as Katribu member.
Datu Jumorito “Ka Jumong” Guaynon, who keeps key positions in all legal fronts that the Communist Party of the Philippines New People’s Army National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) is using to run its legal offensives, worked with Fanagel since 2004 in planning all armed and legal offensives against the government in Mindanao.
Then a secretary of the peasant bureau of the north central Mindanao Regional Committee and vice chairman for Kalumaran Mindanao and council member of Sulong Katribu, a national federation of indigenous peoples, Guaynon said while he was the first nominee of the Sulong Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KATRIBU) while Fanagel was third nominee, both working as spokespersons for these groups.
From Mindanao plenum to national gatherings of indigenous peoples’ until the Manilakbayan Mindanao, Guaynon and Fanagel worked hand in hand, bringing about 2000 Lumads which staged rallies at the Liwasang Bonifacio and at the University of the Philippine in Diliman, from Mindanao to Manila.
In 2017, with then President Rodrigo Duterte declaring Martial Law in Mindanao, Fanagel hid in Cebu, as he had warrants of arrests, including those he got from bringing about IPS of Talaingod to Davao, where they brought bakwits to Haran Evacuation Facility in Davao.
Prior to the elections, both Fanagel and Guaynon, founding members of the Rebolusyonaryong Organisasyon sa mga Lumad, were already members of the national cadre of the CPP NPA NDF.
Because of these warrants for kidnapping and serious illegal detention, Fanagel was kept hidden in Cebu, but in 2015, when the NPAs last plenum, Bohol was targeted as an NPA expansion, to recover and organize the NPA and take the stalemate in the Visayas, Fanagel, being an expert in tactical white area organizing could have been among those cadres deployed in Bohol, Guaynon said.
After several years of slipping through the government’s dragnet, claiming that they are simply IP rights activists, Guaynon negotiated for his surrender and rejoining the mainstream, Fanagel disappeared, and only reappeared when reports of his death surface.
Fanagel’s cadaver was later identified and claimed by his brother and was to be brought back to his home in Saranngani Province, last week. (rahc/PIA-7/bohol)
