By Jennifer P. Rendon and Felipe V. Celino
A village official who was recently in the spotlight for vocally denouncing the Rizal Day raids in Tapaz, Capiz was killed in a broad daylight gun attack Sunday in Calinog, Iloilo.
Barangay Captain Julie Catamin, 49, of Roosevelt, Tapaz, was gunned down by riding-in-tandem gunmen at Barangay Malitbog, Calinog around 8:45 a.m. yesterday.
The two-motorcycle riding suspects allegedly tailed Catamin from Barangay Malitbog Ilaya, Bingawan, Iloilo.
Sources said Catamin came from a wake at Barangay Camalongo, Calinog and decided to spend the night there. He was on his way home and had to pass by Malitbog Ilaya where the incident happened.
Witness said the gunmen repeatedly shot him as he was navigating Malitbog village.
The suspects, who were wearing crash helmets, immediately fled to Calinog town proper.
Recovered from the crime scene were four empty shells of caliber .45 ammunition.
Before his death, Catamin lamented that the bloody December 30 search operation at Tapaz was not coordinated with them. He also claimed that the persons arrested in the operation were not rebels.
Catamin asserted that he knew their constituents and most of those who were arrested were ordinary farmers and innocent elderly.
But Brigadier General Rolando Miranda, Western Visayas police chief, refuted Miranda’s statement.
Despite their difference of opinion, Miranda said he understood where Catamin was coming from. After the exchanges of opinions, not much was heard from Catamin.
On February 25, Catamin went to the 12th Infantry Battalion headquarters in Camp Carreon at Barangay Libot, Calinog.
Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Jason Estrada, 12th IB commander, confirmed the information but clarified that they did not summon Catamin to the camp.
“He personally went there to ask if a village official, who will be among the participants of the second batch of Akap-Kapatid Program, could be excluded from those who will attend,” he said.
Estrada was referring to Barangay Kagawad Edwin Tolentino who asked that he will join the other batch of Akap-Kapatid participants as he has to take care of his child who has special needs.
Estrada and Captain Hazel Joy Durotan, spokesperson of the 301st Infantry Brigade, both claimed there was nothing new to Catamin going to the camp.
“He’s been open to go to military camps. As far as we are concerned, we have a good working relationship,” Durotan said.
Apart from the instance where he vocally criticized the police-initiated raids, the village chief had been supportive of the programs of the government in his area.
“Ayaw n’yang magpagamit sa CPP-NPA,” Estrada said.
He said that the slain village official has been supportive of the CSP – a people-centered program which aims to bring peace and development in conflict-affected barangays. It is an initiative of state forces to bring the government closer to the people through an immediate delivery of basic services, especially to grassroots communities.
The CSP teams act as facilitators in addressing the issues on the exploitation of the communist terrorists in the communities in collaboration with various national government agencies (NGAs), local government agencies (LGAs), LGUs, and other stakeholders.
Roosevelt is one of the villages where CSP teams were deployed.
Meanwhile, before the incident, residents allegedly of Barangay Roosevelt claimed that several “suspicious-looking” men were seen roaming the area and looking for Catamin.
The men identified themselves as members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), the unit that led the Dec. 30 raids in Tapaz and Calinog towns.
But several police sources found this ironic.
“If you have any plans, why broadcast it? Why identify yourself. It looks like someone is using the name of CIDG. Someone is surely misleading the investigation,” a CIDG official said.
Meanwhile, Staff Sergeant Vincent Gaston, Calinog police investigator, said they have yet to identify the suspects and establish the motive behind the killing.
Catamin’s family said, though, that he would act as a witness in the December 30 firearm raid in Roosevelt.
“But we are exploring other angles,” he said.
HITTING THE KEYBOARD FIRST
Amid ongoing investigation on who could be responsible for Catamin’s death, sources pointed to a Facebook page, which first published Catamin’s shooting.
The report was allegedly posted around 10 a.m., just over an hour after the incident.
Even Estrada said that they didn’t know about the incident as early as 10 a.m.
The page, on its initial post, also claimed that Catamin was taken to a hospital in Calinog.
But Gaston confirmed that Catamin was no longer taken to the hospital.
In its 10:55 post, the Facebook page claimed that Catamin was already unresponsive when members of the Municipal Risk Reduction and Management Office arrived.
“I think, the MDRRMO learned about the incident after receiving a radio message. They subsequently informed us,” Gaston said.
The area where the killing happened has no mobile telecommunication signal.
“They would either inform us through radio or someone would physically go to the station,” Gaston said.
He also claimed that they managed to send an initial spot report about the incident around 11:45 a.m. after returning to the police station.
