A Task Force Mapalad member, Pepito Santillan, 60, died yesterday after being shot by unidentified armed men in La Castellana, Negros Occidental.

A day earlier his colleagues allegedly engaged in a gunbattle with security guards of Hacienda Malaga-Velez in Brgy. Robles, La Castellana, where four persons, including a farm worker of landowner Roberto Cuenca, were injured. Santillan was the sixth TFM leader killed in Negros Occidental since 2004, whose deaths were linked to the implementation of agrarian reform programs in the province, police said.

Initial police investigations showed that Santillan was shot in front of his residence in the hacienda at about 2 a.m. yesterday, allegedly by a group of persons identifying themselves as military men, witness claimed.

On Jan. 24, TFM members Fernando Santillan, nephew of Pepito, and Rey Cortejo, as well as Enrique Maliksi, chief security guard of the hacienda, and Renato Mata, farm worker of Cuenca, were injured in an alleged firefight, that lasted for 15 minutes.

Senior Inspector Placido Composa, La Castellana police chief, yesterday said the house of Santillan was also strafed by about eight suspects armed with assault rifles and .45 caliber pistol.

Composa said he is not inclined to believe that the perpetrators were members of the Philippine Army.

Recovered from the scene of the incident were 13 Tanduay rum bottles filled with gasoline, five empty shells of M-16 armalite rifle and .45 caliber pistol. This indicated that the gunmen may have also intended to burn the house of Santillan, Composa said.

Eight empty shells from a shotgun were also recovered by the police from the gunbattle scene on Wednesday in the hacienda.

Composa said the two incidents took place after TFM members installed themselves and occupied a portion of the hacienda owned by Cuenca on Wednesday, without coordinating with the Department of Agrarian Reform and the police.

Police records also showed that majority of the agrarian-reform related violence in Negros Occidental involved members of the Task Force Mapalad.

Senior Supt. Rosendo Franco, provincial police director, yesterday ordered the setting-up of a temporary police outpost in the hacienda, to prevent more clashes between the rival groups of beneficiaries. Romeo Baldevarona of the Commission on Human Rights, said they will investigate the strafing incident and the alleged gunbattle between TFM members and security guards of the hacienda.*GPB

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