Arturo Tabara, hardened criminal and rabid counterrevolutionary
Arturo Tabara, a hardened criminal and rabid counterrevolutionary, was being arrested by a special unit of the New People's Army (NPA) on September 26 in Quezon City in compliance with the order of a special people's court. But because he was armed and resisted arrest, the NPA unit that was to take him into custody was forced to defend itself, killing Tabara in the encounter. His companion, Stephen Ong, who was also armed and who had attempted to defend Tabara, was likewise killed.
 Tabara was being arrested by order of a recently formed special people's court to face numerous criminal cases filed against him as head of the bandit and paramilitary group, the CAFGU-RPA-ABB.
Tabara's list of crimes against the people and the revolutionary movement has grown long, especially since he bolted the Party in 1992. He was accused of, among others, ordering a bank holdup in Maninihon, Bayawan, Negros Oriental on May 8, 2002 that led to the death of four bank employees. According to the charge sheet, it was Tabara himself who ordered the CAFGU-RPA-ABB to carry out the bank holdup.
In August 2003, residents of Panay island also filed complaints of human rights violations against Tabara, documenting various cases of intimidation, extortion, forcible recruitment into the CAFGU and illegal logging. Also named in the complaint is a band led by Demetrio Capilastique (Hugo) and Rufino Cadugo (Rocky) of the CAFGU-RPA-ABB, both of them also assets of the Military Intelligence Group.
Tabara's name was likewise included in a complaint of coercion perpetrated by elements of the CAFGU-RPA-ABB manning checkpoints and launching joint military operations with the Philippine Army detrimental to the people in many areas in Panay. The people charged that Tabara directly authorized these operations as part of the settlement between the Arroyo government and the CAFGU-RPA-ABB.
Cases of armed extortion had likewise been filed before the special people's court against Tabara, among them a case wherein Tabara gave a direct order to the CAFGU-RPA-ABB to collect at least P1,200 monthly from every barangay within their area of operations in Panay and to extort money from trucks transporting logs in these areas.
Tabara was also charged with allowing the CAFGU-RPA-ABB to be used as paid goons in demolitions of poor residents of Boracay Island in Malay, Aklan. He is likewise charged with allowing his armed minions to serve as hired killers and goons of big politicians and businessmen in Negros and Panay, like Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco; Gov. George Arnaiz of Negros Oriental; former Don Salvador Benedicto, Negros Occidental mayor Nene de la Cruz; Mayor Santiago Barcelon of Escalante, Negros Occidental; and Congressman Ignacio Arroyo, Gloria Arroyo's brother-in-law.
Documents in the possession of the special people's court also reveal that Tabara allowed the CAFGU-RPA-ABB to be used by Cojuangco in unleashing terrorism and repression against peasants in his extensive mango, cassava and corn plantations in Negros.
Tabara is charged with authorizing his troops to murder 70-year-old Pedro Trabajador (Tay Pedring) on March 1, 2002 as he was on his way home to Sitio Tanquito, Barangay Mabini, Escalante City. Trabajador was a member of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), which actively opposed the Cojuangco camp's large-scale seizure of peasants' lands in the area to expand its cassava and corn plantations.
Aside from Negros and Panay, there were ongoing investigations of reports that Tabara was providing armed protection to the Red Vigilantes Group, a syndicate involved in illegal drugs, kidnapping-for-ransom and other gangster activities in Nueva Ecija.
Also brought before the special people's court were numerous complaints against Tabara's criminal and gangster activities while he was still with the revolutionary movement. The most prominent among them involved Tabara's embezzlement of over P15 million in Communist Party funds. The investigation revealed that the money has been given for safekeeping to a friend of Tabara's�a lieutenant-colonel in the AFP�and is presently deposited in the US.
Also filed before the special people's court is a case involving the 1989 kidnapping of Bombo Radyo-Philippines owner and president Roger Florete in Iloilo City. Florete's kidnapping was carried out in collusion with then NPA General Command chief Romulo Kintanar. Florete reportedly paid them a P15 million ransom before he was freed.
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