3 soldiers killed in Kalinga ambush identified

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Police on Friday said the three soldiers who were killed in a rebel ambush in the hinterlands of Kalinga province last Wednesday have been identified.

A report by the Kalinga police to Camp Dangwa, headquarters of the regional police force in La Trinidad, identified the victims as SSgt. Ci-o, Sgt. Galimba and Pfc. Toribio, all of the Philippine Army’s 21st Infantry Battalion.

The three were killed during a clash with suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels at about 4 p.m. last Wednesday at the remote sitio of Lagwak in barangay Limos in Pinukpuk town.

Chief Inspector Joe Baday, chief of police in Pinukpuk, reported that the soldiers were on their way to Pinukpuk from barangay Poswoy in neighboring Balbalan town when they were ambushed. Baday’s report did not name the army soldier who was wounded.

It was unclear if the NPAs who staged the ambush are the same group that bombed a Globe telecommunications tower in barangay Pakawit, also in Pinukpuk, last July 27.

Police said the rebel who was hacked to death by a villager during the cellsite bombing was from barangay Balantoy in Balbalan, which is close to Poswoy village.

The Wednesday ambush came amid President Arroyo’s two-day furlough in Apayao province and Tuguegarao City where she was presented with developmental action plans for Cagayan Valley formulated by the participants to the first-ever local peace and security assembly.

In the meeting, Mrs. Arroyo called on local, military and police officials in the region to “crush the rebels once and for all because they are trying to impede the growth of our country." - GMANews.TV

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Man wanted in Cagayan falls in Kalinga

Tabuk City, Kalinga - A man wanted for a case of robbery with homicide in Penablanca, Cagayan was arrested by operatives of the Kalinga Provincial Police Office (KPPO) night of April 15,2008 in his house at Magaogao, Pinukpuk, this province.

Inspector Abraham Galingan who headed the ar-resting team informed the media that Nestor Merin, 29, single, and resident of Magaogao was asleep in his house when the police served the alias warrant of arrest issued by Judge Jezarene Aquino of the Regional Trial Court Branch 5 of Tuguegarao City, Cagayan.

Galingan said that the arrest came after an intelligence report that Merin was sighted in Magaogao turned out positive.

Galingan said that Merin was implicated in the break-in of the house of Penablanca businessman Hermogenes Addun which resulted in the killing of Addun sometime in December 2006.

The police official said that after Lupo Tuliao of Buyan, Penablanca was arrested in Tuga, this city, sometime in December 2006, for a different crime, he revealed his involvement in the Addun robbery case and likewise pointed to Merin, Agustin Cawilan of Camalog, Pinukpuk, and Peter Bakulen of Pinukpuk as his companions which prompted the filing of a of robbery with homicide case against them.

Merin admitted that he was with the group during the incident but claimed that it was his companions who entered the house of Addun.

The arrest of Merin came at the heels of the apprehension of Hadji Obal, the No. 5 most wanted man in the Cordillera, at sitio Dalimuno, Bantay, this city, at 4 AM of April 9.

Galingan who also headed the arresting team said that the arrest was made in compliance with the warrant of arrest issued by Judge Marcelino Wacas of Regional Trial Court Branch 25 of this city for the crimes of double murder and frustrated murder. **By Estanislao Albano, Jr.

Tourist's misadventure: Canadian man meets mountain's spirits!

A supposed excitement and merry-making relative to the first time visit cum adventure of a westerner married to a local woman has turned unexpectedly into bizarre and total grief. This came about when Otto Unsinn, 62, met his own death in what appears to be a mishap afternoon of March 4 in his way to the remote mountainous village of Buaya (or Buwaya), Balbalan.

According to some witnesses who happen to be the victim's companions at the time of accident, Unsinn and his wife Eulalia Lumiwan, 56, together with several locales, were trekking the trail going to Buaya when the accident happened.

Unsinn who showed that time too much excitement to reach his wife's native home was moving fast ahead of the others when suddenly he got skidded and dropped into a relatively deep canal while trying to cross it. Apparently, he fell quickly headfirst facing the ground and as he landed his head quick-struck a seemingly sharp crushed stone immediately causing him unconscious, a witness said. Bruises in the face and a wound in the lower jaw are visible.

The wife tried to apply a sort of first aid by pumping his breast and then rushed him after that to the hospital. Few hours along the way, Unsinn was still with his pulse but did not make it the time he reached the Pinukpuk District Hospital. There he was declared dead on arrival.

Unsinn is a German national turned Canadian citizen.

The wife has already informed the German and Canadian embassies regarding her husband's death and her desire to bring home to Canada the cadaver, and she and her relatives also had requested the police and the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct an investigation and perform an autopsy to dispel doubts on the matter.

Unsinn now lies in state at the residence of Mr. Castro Bedoy, brother-in-law, at Purok 4, Bulanao, Tabuk City, this province while waiting the travel papers and other requirements be processed and finished for him to be brought home.