By Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD City – Mayor Salvador Escalante of Cadiz City, Negros Occidental urged the police to conduct a thorough probe on the killing of an agrarian reform cooperative farm manager at Hacienda Dalayapan, Brgy. Caduha-an, which is a popular tourist destination in the city.
Manalo Porre, farm manager of the Dalayapan Agrarian Reform Cooperative (DARCO), was shot dead by eight armed persons on May 4, 2021.
His death happened almost two months after his elder brother, Larry, was also killed in the area by alleged New People’s Army members.
DARCO supervised the well-known Darco café in Brgy. Caduha-an, Cadiz City. It is composed mostly of former rebels and agrarian reform beneficiaries.
While the NPA claimed Larry’s death, Escalante said police have yet to establish the identities of the persons behind the killing of Manalo.
He described Manalo as a “good man.”
The mayor admitted that there is still a problem of peace and order in the area, despite its development in the past several years.
He said that the city government has developed the area that used to be a hotbed of insurgency in northern Negros by implementing infrastructure projects such as electrification, concrete paving of roads, construction of a bridge, schools, and developing potential tourist areas.
He also said Barangay Caduha-an in Cadiz City is also a recipient of the P20 million development program under the National Task Force–Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict.
