VISAYAN DAILY STAR - JUNE 4, 2007

NPA claims Peña ambush, says 'justice' will be servedIF NOT NOW, NEXT TIME; BUT PEÑA STILL BLAMES MONDIA
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The New People's Army Boy Gatmaitan Command yesterday claimed responsibility for the ambush on the convoy of Mayor-elect Magdaleno Peña and what it called "his armed PNP escorts and goons" on May 30 in Pulupandan town, a statement from Ka Bayani Obrero, spokesperson of the BGC, said yesterday.
"The NPA will continue and will not stop until revolutionary justice will be served on Atty. Magdaleno Peña. If not now there is always a next time," the statement sent for Obrero by the National Democratic Front Negros Office to the media said.
"Atty. Magdaleno Peña is a cruel warlord, bloodthirsty murderer, enemy of the people and the revolution. He is also hated by his family, hacienderos and warlords like his kind," the statement said.
Peña, when reached for comment, said the statement was hogwash.
"All those statements were prepared by Samson Mondia and his leftist family to mislead the investigation," he said. Peña, who defeated Mondia in the recent race for Pulupandan mayor, said "that makes Samson a deputy of the NPA." .
Mondia, who denied that the statement came from him and his family, said he has nothing to do with its issuance and with the ambush. My family has no connection with the leftists, he said.
The best thing to do is to authenticate whether the statement came from the NPA or not, Mondia said.
The ambush in Zone 4 of Pulupandan on Wednesday last week resulted in minor injuries to Peña from glass and metal shards, the death of his driver and his bodyguard, and injury to three others, including his nephew, Gerany Suatengco.
"An NPA team tried to serve a standing order of meting revolutionary justice against Atty. Magdaleno Peña that has been strongly demanded by the people because of the grave crimes he committed since the 80s and until now," Obrero said.

'LANDGRABBING'
Obrero said among the crimes of Peña is the "landgrabbing of peasant lands in Brgy Inolingan, Moises Padilla, through state terrorism by the use of blue guards and the Philippine Army."
"My response to this so-called NPA statement is they should get their facts right. Who did I displace, the poor farmers or the rich loan sharks?" Pena asked.
Peña denied the landgrabbing charge, saying the same people are working the land owned by his grandmother, and that he has reached a joint agreement with them to give them fertilizer in exchange for rental of the land.
He also said the people he displaced were the financiers to whom the farmers, who were land reform beneficiaries had mortgaged their land, and who would have ended up the owners of the property because they were charging exorbitant interest rates.

TERRORIZING
Obrero also charged Peña with "terrorizing the masses in Pulupandan using armed goons in order to evict them from their homes, accusing them of false charges to imprison them."
Peña, however, denied that he has used armed goons in Pulupandan.

MURDERS
Obrero also accused Peña of cases of grave threats, manhandling, imprisonment and murders of farm workers of Hacienda Montilla in Pulupandan in 1980, when they were organizing to protest against his repression and exploitation.
But he said that, in the 80s he was staying in Manila and his brother was working the farm.
Obrero also cited Peña for his alleged connection to the murders of organizers and leaders of peasant and fishermen organizations and youth activists in Valladolid
Peña used the services of "Bebot" Miravalles kag Ernesto "Boy" Betia in several crimes, Obrero said, claiming they are "mercenaries."
That's hogwash, Peña said, adding that Miravalles and Betia are not mercenaries.

DEATH OF FORMER MAYOR
Obrero also charged Peña with masterminding the murders of Mayor Kenny Fernandez (former mayor of Pulupandan) , Police Lt. Romeo Soralio (former chief of Pulupandan) and many others.
Peña said he did not know Soralia and had no reason to kill Fernandez because he was not even running for mayor at the time.

ILLEGAL DRUGS
The NPA also alleged that Peña is involved in cases of illegal drug operations as financier and partner of Rep. Ignacio Arroyo Jr. (Neg. Occ., 5th district).
Peña and Arroyo denied the charge.
Obrero said that, because of Peña's money and influence, he has been "untouchable by the authorities and the law and he can even imprison people like Gen. (Raymundo) Jarque and other military and police officials including members of the opposition."
Peña said if Jarque did not intervene in a domestic problem of his family he would not have gone after him.

LINK TO ARROYOS
Obrero said Peña is "supported and protected by corrupt government officials, hoodlums-in-robes judges and mercenary/corrupt officers of the AFP/PNP since the Marcos dictatorship and until now. His closeness to the Arroyos and Malacañang, are the reasons why he now lords in Pulupandan with his goons," the NPA-BGC statement added.
Peña said the only Arroyos he is close to are Rep. Ignacio Arroyo Jr. and Gerany Arroyo Suatengco.
Rep. Arroyo, meanwhile, said he admits that Peña is his friend, but so are the Mondias. In fact the KAMPI mayoralty bet in Pulupandan was Samson Mondia, said Arroyo, who is the regional chairman of the party.
The NPAs are the ones who are terrorists, Arroyo said.
Obrero's statement further said, however, "We call on the people and the victims of Atty. Magdaleno Peña to support and join the armed struggle in order to destroy the ruling system represented by his kind."

BLUE REVO AND PORT
Meanwhile, Peña yesterday insisted that Samson Mondia was in the blue Revo used as the getaway vehicle of his ambushers.
The blue Revo has been seen in the house of Mondia and has been used as his back-up vehicle, Peña claimed.
Mondia yesterday again strongly denied being in the ambush vehicle and of having used or owned a blue Revo.
"I don't know why Peña keeps on blaming whatever is happening in Pulupandan on me when he is already the mayor of the town," Mondia said.
"I think the next target of Peña is the port of Pulupandan that is why he is insisting that I am behind the ambush to paralyze me and my family so it will be easy for him to take over," Mondia said.
"He is pinning the blame for the ambush on us so he can have us arrested and he can take over the port," Mondia added.*CPG

VISAYAN DAILY STAR - May 31, 2007

A bloodied Magdaleno Peña being wheeled into the Dr. Pablo O. Torre Memorial Hospital, also known as the Riverside Medical Center, emergency room in an ABS-CBN video grab, shouted "It's showtime!"

Peña survives ambush,2 killed, 3 others injured
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Pulupandan mayor-elect Magdaleno Peña survived an ambush with slight injuries in his left arm and other parts of the body, while his driver and bodyguard were killed at Calle Montilla, Barangay Zone 4, Pulupandan, at about 4:30 p.m. yesterday.
His nephew and three others in his three-car convoy were also wounded, while some of their attackers who escaped, were also believed injured, the police said.
As he entered the Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod with blood dripping from his arm caused by glass and metal shards, Peña waved and shouted "It's showtime!"
Peña, the former lover of fitness guro Marie Roxanne "Plinky" Recto with whom he has been engaged in a lengthy legal battle for custody of their son, was on the way to his estate in Barangay Ubay when they were ambushed by heavily armed men standing in the middle of the road in Zone 4.
Killed was his driver Jose "Moril" Merced and bodyguard Ronnie "Boy" Gegavine who were in the second vehicle.
Injured were his nephew, newly-elected second councilor of Pulupandan Gerany Suatengco who was hit by a bullet in the left knee, bodyguard Diego Anciano who was hit in the back, and the driver of the third vehicle, Bongbong Maravalles, who had a slight injury on the left arm.
A source said Peña had switched cars and was riding in the lead car that was green Expedition driven by Suatengco.
Suatengco, on noticing that there were armed men on the road up ahead, sensed trouble and stepped on the gas and broke through the line of fire.
Their vehicle was peppered with bullets but they were able to escape the kill zone to reach Ubay.
The second vehicle, a black Expedition, which is the vehicle Peña usually takes, was where the ambushers concentrated their gunfire, killing Merced and Gegavine, PO3 Pedrito Lopo who was in the third vehicle, a Strada, said.
Lopo and PO3 Ariel Flores, security escorts of Peña, who were in the third vehicle, were able to return fire.
Senior Supt. Rosendo Franco, Negros Occidental police director, said six men armed with alleged M-14 and M-16 rifles fired at the Peña convoy and escaped in a light blue Revo.
Some of the ambushers were also believed injured and he has alerted all hospitals to report the presence of injured people brought in, Franco said.
Peña has been threatening to evict 3,000 Pulupandan residents he says are squatters on his family-owned property.
His opponent for mayor Samson Mondia had accused him of using the eviction threat to scare people into voting for him.
But Peña, who describes himself as "Voldemort", said he won because he was the better tactician.
On Monday Peña and his partymates took their oaths before Gov. Joseph Marañon.
Peña said he would evict 20 percent of the hard-headed squatters and transfer them to a rebel-infested area in Moises Padilla, a town about 50 kilometers away from Pulupandan.
Peña had also filed numerous charges in the past against Gen. Raymundo Jarque that led the general to seek refuge with the New People's Army. The charges were eventually dismissed.
Jarque, when contacted by the DAILY STAR, said he was surprised that Peña had been ambushed and asked how he was.*CPG


I recognized allof them, Peña says
BY CARLA GOMEZ
"I recognized all of them," Pulupandan mayor-elect Magdaleno "Magsie" Peña said of his ambushers last night.
Peña, in a telephone interview, said the armed men who got down from a light blue Revo ahead of where his convoy passed did not conceal their faces and he will name all of them.
He linked his attackers to his opponent for mayor, Samson Mondia.
However, Mondia last night denied having anything to do with the ambush saying he does not engage in such activity and would have nothing to gain from it.
He also said Peña has many other enemies.
Peña said when he saw the armed men he told his nephew, Gerany Suatengco, who was driving the green Expedition he was in to step on the gas and break out of the killing zone.
"I ducked beneath the dashboard and I felt a force envelop me as bullets and glass whizzed by," he said.
Twenty bullets hit the side of the vehicle he was riding in, he said.
He sustained injuries in the arm, head and other parts of the body from shards of glass from the shattered windshield and metal. believed to have come from the copper jackets of bullets, he said. Peña said he was not directly hit by bullets.*CPG