Rebelyn 20-year-old Rebelyn Pitao of Carmen Davao Del Norte was employed as a substitute elementary school teacher.
It is reasonable to assume Rebelyn believed in the ideal that it is by gaining a proper education and a decent job that an ordinary Filipino can one ultimately be freed from the clutches of poverty.
Rebelyn’s father Leoncio, who uses the ‘nom de guerre’ Kumander Parago, is tagged by the military for various crimes, among them behind the 1999 kidnapping of then Brig. Gen. Victor Obillo and Capt. Eduardo Montealto along with the abduction of Jose Manero, brother of priest-killer Norberto, in Paquibato District.
The NPA leader was also believed behind the 2007 raid on the Davao Penal Colony armory in Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte and the attack on several police stations in the area.
Rebelyn went missing Wednesday last week and the next day lifeless body was found floating in a shallow creek the following day at Purok 5, Barangay San Isidro, Carmen, Davao del Norte, 30 kilometers from Davao City.
It bore marks of torture with five stab wounds on her chest, marks of strangulation on her neck and her face bludgeoned. Lacerations were also found in her genitals, indicating that a hard object was inserted.
Who would have wanted to kill a young woman in so brutal a manner?
Her father is now quoted by the Philippine Star as pinpointing her killers while the authorities are promising there will be no whitewash in their investigation with the perpetrators being brought to justice whoever they may be.
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=447223&publicationSubCategoryId=63
Justice is all we can really hope for in the end.
The more deeply-rooted causes of the insurgencies in this country: poverty coupled with ideological conflict and social inequities remain woefully unmitigated.
Ultimately these circumstances killed Rebelyn Pitao.
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Isn’t that Manero the guy who once allegedly ate the innards of his enemies besides killing the priest?
Italian priest Tullio Favali. BYW Norberto Manero waa recently given a presidential pardon.
Who is psychologically capable of such a thing? Certainly not some right wing vigilante group.
In 1986 the leader of Kilusang Mayo Uno, Atty. Rolando Olalia and his driver Leonor Alay-ay were kidnapped and later found brutally murdered.
At that time extreme rightist soldier-members of RAM were widely suspected to have carried out the murders to destablize the Aquino revolutionary government.
The case has remained unresolved to this dsay.
Who killed Rebelyn?
Okay, let’s treat it like a detective story.
Something doesn’t make sense. Why has Commander Parago come out now to accuse “military agents” of torturing, raping and killing his daughter? A man with his storied career surely realized a long time ago the need to secure his own family, in the rare case where they are not actively supporting the revolutionary cause and would therefore be securing themselves.
Do the children of NPA commanders with such a track record as L. Pitao really think they can live normal lives in society? Someone like Rebelyn cannot have such expectations and it is not really society’s fault. It’s L. Pitao’s fault!
Most likely this is a revenge killing, probably by the son or daughter or father or mother of some person that Pitao himself may have kidnapped or killed in his long criminal career as an NPA capo.
The other distinct possibility is this was indeed purely and simply a brutal rape slaying, hundreds of which occur in the Philippines every year among the 2000 rapes that are reported.
Or, if it is true that Rebelyn was “just pursuing an education” as you suggest, perhaps she was done in by the 2ND PULANG BAGANI BRIGADE of the NPA–because they got paranoid about the daughter of the commander of the 1st PUlang Bagani Brigade who was NOT actively supporting the armed insurgency.
ding,
those are possibilities but even if we assume to one best guess, this country really has not come up with a solid solution. it’s the same fearful environment from a very long time. Our environment is not attractive but actually a scary place that many people, tourists and investors are reluctant to visit. Instead of enjoying the beauty of our paradise to relax and recuperate from stressful work, no reasonable person would be able to think at peace. The negative perception of our environment affects the overall economic value and growth of this country. Peace and security has a direct effect their overall confidence in our economy. This to me is the job description of our police force. They should understand and be trained that their jobs are crucial to the economic growth of our society.
Ding, the people who manage this country have no clue at all. They don’t know what it takes to bring this country forward. Kidnapping, drugs and brutal killing only happen to the poorest and worst country in the world. Philippines belongs to that category and very few can say “I’m proud to be a filipino” in the sense of his/her security.
Now if we really have to make a guess on who is responsible for peace and security, who has direct supervision and authority to train its many corrupt employees, to review its policy that will match its goal and vision for the people, to make changes to enhance economic growth and to upgrade the backwardness of this entity?
ding… this only requires seminar and on going education 2 or 3 times a year. The supervision part is to follow up if there’s improvement from training.
I don’t know why this country cannot think right.
People rely on the president who is an economist. And what about the rest of her team? are they dependent on her decision? or they are all paid and secured? or they don’t know what the hell they are sitting in office for?
hay naku ding, this country will have a another 100 years. I will surely die before I see my people free. This country will drain the many positively charge Filipinos into a citizen of no tomorrow. There’s no assurance, opportunities and options around it.
We cannot anymore buy that crap that there are quarters who just want to discredit the military, reason for that bastardly act.
There are other better ways to do that. I think masyadong gasgas na yang mga ganyang line of thinking.
Time to abolish the ISAFP which cannot even come out with a Report of the case. Sayang lang ang unaudited intelligence fund.
I agree with kp re:ISAFT. That intelligence agency has not even the intelligence to know whether it’s Garci’s voice or Big Bird’s.
The incident is horrible. Both sides of the
conflict are committing atrocities. Raping
and murdering an NPA commander’s daughter will
not win the minds and hearts of our people.
We do a better job, by just going after the
NPA commander, not his family.
Peeps,
Thanks for your reflections.
No debate.
The institution that is government, not simply the government of the day, faces the task o sorting out the problems the system, problems that are certainly not of GMA’s making.
DJB, your ‘inside job’ angle is also plausible, i must say.
But as in my earlier backgounders here:
http://filipinovoices.com/the-rape-and-murder-of-rebelyn-pitao-20
the possibility that extreme rights are ‘nakikisawsaw’ also cannot be removed from the equation.
Even Defense Sec. Teodoro, I infer, is looking at this angle.
walang pinag-iba to sa tanong na ¨Sino ang nagnanakaw at nagpapahirap sa mga kababayan natin na nakatira sa lugar na may mga NPA?¨
ang sagot ay…pareho sila. Militar nagnanakaw at nagpapahirap sa mga mamayan…NPA nagnanakaw at nagpapahirap sa mga mamayan.
Pero wala ni isa sa kanila ang umaamin na nagnanakaw at nagpapahirap sila sa mga mamayan. Ang militar sinasabi na pinoportektahan nila ang mamayan…ang NPA sabi din pinoprotektahan nila ang mamayan…
So ngayon..sabi ng militar hindi sila ang pumatay kay rebelyn…ganun din ang sabi ng ibang grupo…
walang katapusang kasinungalingan sa balat ng lupang hinirang!!!!!
ang di maikaila ay…SI REBELYN ANG NAGDUSA SA KAHUNGHANGAN NG LAHAT!!!
Juwan,
Tumbok mo rin.
Most likely Pitao was already NPA when his daughter was born. That is when her fate was sealed. It is a choice that he made that gave her the short life she lived. If he can’t live with that and now threatens the daughters of others, then he ought to be doubly condemned. What a paragon of fatherhood, eh?
Dean and the rest,
Ryan Tani, the latest contributor here at FV has provided a link to a most informative 96-page UN Report on Social Vulnerability in the World.
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N03/426/20/PDF/N0342620.pdf?OpenElement
Quite succinctly, a part jumps out:
“60. Increasingly, fighting parties sustain themselves by taking control of natural resources and civilian assets. That new economy of war has led to a proliferation of armed groups organized with weak command-and-control lines. As a result, untrained combatants have waged most of the recent wars in disregard (and probably ignorance) of the Geneva Conventions that include provisions for the protection of civilians. Civilians have been used as tools of battle in various ways, including the expulsion or massacre of populations and the rape of women, in order to gain urbanization, has not only put traditional social protection mechanisms (including formal social security, social welfare services and informal family support systems) under pressure, but has further eroded the ability of individuals, households, groups and communities to cope with hardship, thereby increasing their vulnerability.”
Rebelyn Pitao was one such casualty, indeed.
militants should also realize kumander parago’s crimes before. would it be a reminder for a payback from his deeds?
Ding,
Casualty or combatant?
If combatant, what side was she on?
DJB,
You tell me perhaps you have an intel report tagging the girl as an amazon.
In civil warrs, there are:
1. Civilian casualties.
2. Armed combatant who are KIA.
3. Civilian snitches for the military or DPAs.
4. Civilian ‘sleepers’ who, at a signal, are activated
5. Foreigners caught in the middle
6. Foreign mercenaries
6. Wackos
Take your pick.
But is it your propositions that because she was her rebel father’s daughter hedeserved to be raped then murdered?
She was an elementary school teacher, for crissakes!
propositon.
proprosition. tangang daliri
Ding,
No one deserves to be raped and murdered. But do we really know anything about the circumstances of her death other than the result? She’s being made out to be some kind of martyr, (even saw the CPP NPA post at Global Voices extolling her). Is she?
I frankly don’t know. But if people are gonna engage in rank propaganda, do I have to take it as gospel truth?
Lots of people get raped and murdered. What so special about Parago’s daughter, anyway? How many daughters and sons has he murdered? Do we care? How many father and mothers has he extorted, kidnapped, killed? How many cellsites has he blown up. How many lives has he destroyed. Do we owe this man any sympathy whatsoever? Where is his wife. She is surely grieving more greatly.
How do you know Rebelyn wasn’t killed by the NPA because she was gonna turn against them?
“How do you know Rebelyn wasn’t killed by the NPA because she was gonna turn against them?”
No one does.
All I am saying, if you don’t yet get my drift, is why is it that in THIS Filipina’s case you’ve been drilling, speculating, about her possible lack of virtue.
Now, I ask you, how is it that when recently there were academic speculations about an American’s fate you used the bogey word UNETHICAL?
Educate me, sir.