By Jennifer P. Rendon
You don’t broadcast your punches.
This was the reaction of Lieutenant Colonel Gervacio Balmaceda to claims that they were looking for Barangaay Captain Julie Catamin a day before the latter was gunned down by riding-in-tandem gunmen at Barangay Malitbog, Calinog, Iloilo.
“That’s fake news,” Balmaceda said of reports that CIDG personnel went to Barangay Roosevelt, Tapaz, Capiz, and were asking for Catamin’s whereabouts.
For Balmaceda, it would be an act of idiocy to go to the turf of a person and proclaim yourself to be a CIDG personnel.
Instead, the CIDG-6 believed that the real assassins used CIDG’s name to condition the mind of the people about a plan to kill the village chief.
On top of that, there was no “resident” that came out saying that there were indeed CIDG 6 personnel who looked for Catamin.
Instead, the information was just floated by a Facebook page claiming that some residents heard of CIDG personnel looking for Catamin.
As per report, the self-proclaimed “CIDG men” allegedly went to Roosevelt on February 27 and February 28, 2021, hours before the village chief was repeatedly shot by motorcycle-riding men.
Balmaceda said such things are mere speculations and had no tint of truth in it.
He said the CIDG-Capiz provincial field unit claimed they never went to the area nor ordered anyone to go there.
Balmaceda explained that the CIDG field units had not conducted any activity in the area days before the incident.
“If ever we did, we have a record of pre-coordination and when I checked, there was none,” he said.
Despite the accusations, Balmaceda said the unit is willing to help in the investigation to solve Catamin’s murder.
When asked if he had someone or any group in mind that could be behind the accusations against them, Balmaceda refused to name anyone.
“Ayaw kong mambintang without any holdings or solid proof,” he said. “Our purpose is to gain the trust of the public and we don’t think this is one of them”
The 49-year old Catamin was gunned down by riding-in-tandem gunmen while he was navigating Barangay Malitbog, Calinog, around 8:45 a.m. of Sunday.
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 when the incident happened.
Aside from allegations that the “CIDG men” went to the area to look for Catamin, some quarters claimed that he was also called by the military to report.
But military authorities clarified the matter.
On February 25, Catamin voluntarily went to the 12th Infantry Battalion headquarters in Camp Carreon at Barangay Libot, Calinog.
Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Jason Estrada, 12th IB commander, clarified that they never summoned 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 would 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’s 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 firearm, 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 our 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.
Under Catamin’s leadership, Barangay Roosevelt declared the CPP-NPA as persona non grata on Sept. 15, 2020 “and has always been supportive of E.O. 70.”
Signed in Dec. 4, 2018, Executive Order No. 70 is about “Institutionalizing the Whole-Of-Nation Approach in Attaining Inclusive and Sustainable Peace, Creating A National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, and Directing the Adoption of A National Peace Framework.”
