Tabara's grave crimes
A week after hardened criminal and counterrevolutionary Arturo Tabara was killed, his crimes against the people continue to be exposed. According to the latest report, Tabara was guilty of 19 cases of murder and at least 15 cases of holdups, theft, extortion and human rights violations. Many of the cases were committed in Negros and Panay where the RPA-ABB that he led was able to wreak havoc.
What other crimes was Tabara guilty of and why was there much rejoicing among the people and the revolutionary movement in Negros and Panay when they learned that his ability to perpetrate crimes and wreak havoc had ended?
The following is a lineup of some of Tabara's most serious crimes:
Against the revolutionary movement
In mid-1993, Tabara incited NPA members in Panay that he had deceived to mutiny and ordered them to cart away 170 high-powered firearms. In May 1994, he ordered Daniel Batoy (alias Mokong) and Demetrio Capilastique (alias Hugo) to disarm an NPA team in Barangay Bagacay, Tigbauan, Iloilo. The counterrevolutionary elements took with them two M16s, a Garand and a VHF handset.
In May 2001, Tabara and Nilo de la Cruz issued orders to the RPA-ABB to launch armed attacks against the NPA. The result was a raid by combined forces of the Philippine Army 12th IB and the RPA-ABB on an NPA team in Barangay Culasi, Antique on May 21. During this encirclement operation, Rowena Torato and Manny (Ka Cezar) Oderio were killed and two other guerrillas were wounded seriously. The AFP also captured another Red fighter.
Tabara was also involved in the capture of Party cadre Ruben Saluta on November 22 and his torture and illegal detention in the hands of AFP operatives up to December 22, 1999.
?Grave crimes in Panay since 1994
From 1994 to 1999, Tabara was involved in the murder of at least eight peasants from three different towns. Many of the victims were opposed to, or resisted, the RPA-ABB's criminal activities.
He was also involved in the murder of Juanito Lutero of Barangay Tambal, Janiuay, Iloilo in 1999. A person with whom Lutero had a land dispute paid a large sum to the RPA-ABB to have Lutero killed.
Other cases involved the murder of three peasant youth in Barangay Aquino in 2000; two sons of Lucero Batoy in Barangay Aparicio in March 2001; and businessman Boy Tesorero of Makato, Aklan in 2002.
Tabara and the RPA-ABB were likewise involved in the kidnapping of Leo Victor (Leovic) Gutierrez, a mountaineer from Manila, in February 2003.
In Negros and other areas
As Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr.'s security officer, Arturo Tabara was responsible for offering the RPA-ABB's services as Cojuangco's private goons in large-scale landgrabbing operations in the cities of Canlaon, Kabankalan, Sipalay, Bago and Carlota, and the towns of Don Salvador Benedicto and La Castellana, all in Negros island.
Tabara and Stephen Paduano (alias Carapali Lualhati) were mainly responsible for a bank holdup by the RPA-ABB holdup in May 2002. The RPA-ABB stole money owned by the Municipal Treasurer's Office of Sta. Catalina town in Negros Oriental which was deposited in a bank in nearby Bayawan town. Lito Dagat, Virgie Edreal, Dondon Dinsay and another municipal employee were killed in this incident.
Tabara made the RPA-ABB serve as goons of the political dynasty led by Nene de la Cruz and his wife Cynthia who is currently mayor of Don Salvador Benedicto. He was also involved in illegal logging operations in that town.
Tabara and the RPA-ABB served as paid goons of Ignacio Arroyo, brother-in-law of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and other reactionary politicians in Negros in the last election.
Tabara also extorted sums ranging from P100,000 to millions of pesos from businessmen and landlords, claiming it was for revolutionary taxation. He used the name and logo of the CPP- NPA-NDF and the signature of NDF-Negros spokesperson Ka Frank Fernandez in the extortion letters sent out.
In 2002, the RPA-ABB actively linked up with another band of murderers that called itself the Red Vigilante Group (RVG) led by Ricardo Peralta. Based in Bongabon, Nueva Ecija, the RVG is controlled by the province's governor Tomas Joson III and the military, and operates mostly in Central Luzon. Its elements serve as guns-for-hire, and are involved in holdup, drug peddling and kidnapping operations.
The RPA-ABB-RVG is also in the service of close allies of Danding Cojuangco Jr. such as the Dys of Isabela. It carries out landgrabbing operations and terrorizes the people and the Dys' political opponents. It was this group that was responsible for the murder of Jones, Isabela Bayan Muna party coordinator Jake Soriano and businessman Romy Blancaflor, also from the town of Jones. It was also the RPA-ABB-RVG that razed down two municipal halls in Isabela during the May 2004 election.
Tabara also made the RPA-ABB serve as paid goons of druglords in Boracay.
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