One of high-profile assassinations that jarred Davao del Sur in the dying years of martial law was the killing of a political leader who, in his years as a law enforcer, was honored as one of the Ten Outstanding Policemen of the Philippines (TOPP).
Maj. Salvador B. Dumogho, then the provincial chairman of the opposition party PDP-Laban, was the campaign manager of human rights lawyer Douglas Ra. Cagas, who was running for a seat in the regular Batasang Pambansa, representing Davao del Sur. At the time, he was also director for student services of Cor Jesu College and barangay chairman of Zone 2, in Digos City.
A reserve Army officer and municipal coordinator of the United Opposition of Davao del Sur, Dumogho was walking the last few meters towards his residence along Roxas Street, in Digos City, when two armed men shot him pointblank in front of his terrified wife and 11-year-old son, Salvador IV. He had just visited his brother-in-law when the gruesome incident took place.
The shots fired did not escape Dumogho’s relatives who were at his brother-in-law’s domicile. They rushed out of the place moments and ran in the direction where the shots were coming. What met them were the shouts of the victim’s wife and son who were asking for help. Apparently unperturbed by the commotion triggered by the shooting, the gunmen calmly fled on foot along with two other companions who served as lookouts.
The crime’s scene was 100 hundred meters away only from the place where former Digos mayor Nonito Llanos, Jr. was killed on March 26, 1982.
Angry with the brutal death of his trusted leader, Cagas issued a strong statement, saying: “I condemn the system that breeds and promotes hatred among men. I condemn that system that leads Filipino to kill their brother Filipinos. I want the truth: Who killed Major Salvador B. Dumogho? And why? My family and I mourn his death. The people of Digos mourn his death.”
Observers had a suspicion the killing had a political angle to it given the vocal anti-Marcos stance Cagas adopted. Nothing, however, came out of the police probe. Even after Cagas became as officer-in-charge of the province of Davao del Sur in 1986 following the collapse of the Marcos regime, the perpetrators and their mastermind remained anonymous.
People in the know suggested the Dumogho was ideologically motivated; the slay was later blamed on the New People’s Army and could have been related to the victim’s work while still in active duty as a policeman. All the while, Cagas wanted his friend’s untimely death avenged.
After taking over the governorship from Leonardo Suario, then perceived as left-leaning, Cagas promised to free the province from the communist menace. He openly “declared an all-out war against communism, with his constituents as frontliners.”
Carol O. Arguillas, in an article (“Fighting Rebels the ‘Peaceful’ Way”) that came in the March 5-11, 1987, issue of Veritas, wrote:
“Calling himself the very first supporter of the NPA in his province, Cagas now busies himself implementing the brainchild of Provincial Commander Lt. Col. Jesus Magno, the NAKASAKA (Nagkahiusang Katawhan Alang sa Kalinaw or United People for Peace). […] Immediately after the ceasefire [with the NPA] expired, [they] began making the rounds of the sitios to organize the residents into joining the organization by launching into Red scare speeches at a pulong-pulong or barangay assemblies. The speeches dwell on the evils of communism and the atrocities committed by the NPA, and the dire fate that awaits the country if it falls into the hands of communism.”
With the Dumogho assassination still unresolved, the NAKASAKA, however, contributed a lot in forcing the communist insurgents to flee from the population centers to the countryside.
