Law enforcers in southern Mindanao when Davao was the epicenter of the communist insurgency movement suffered a humiliating encounter on October 17, 1985, when the New People’s Army (NPA) waylaid a police unit from Lupon, costing the life of the town’s police chief.
Seventy fully-armed rebels ambushed a joint 15- man police and paramilitary force led by Lt. Arnold Malintad on a mission to recover the body of a woman publicly executed in front of her husband and children over an hour earlier for being suspected as an informer by the NPA. The ambush took place at Cabadiangan, Lupon, Davao Oriental, early in the morning.
The suspected informant, according to media reports, was a relative of one of Davao Oriental Francisco Rabat’s close-in security guards, the ‘Blue Boys,’ that secured the provincial capital. This relationship was purportedly the reason why she was distrusted.
Another reason cited for her death was in retaliation for the number of rebels killed by the military operatives during the several encounters between the two contending forces.
Aside from Lt. Malintad, a former chief of police of the towns of Manay, Sigaboy (Gov. Generoso), and Mati (now a city), those killed in the waylay included Patrolman Pama and militiamen Juan Kasan, Dante Godoso, Rolando Magno, and Jun Caya.
Apparently, nobody tipped the police-led contingent about the impending surprise attack. Survivors’ accounts say the rebels had already positioned themselves along the roadside when they pounced on the unprepared police patrol jeep. A one-hour gunfight ensued but the law enforcers had to tactically withdraw to ask for reinforcement. They also brought along with their retreat three of their wounded companions.
Lt. Malintad, who was Lupon station commander for less than a year, managed to hit back by shooting at close range NPA Commander Cambol who approached to collect his firearm. Playing dead with a cocked gun, he fired at the rebel leader and fatally hit him. The other insurgents who saw the incident ran towards the mortally wounded police chief and finished him off.
Overall, the ambush and the subsequent gunfight between the law enforcers and the insurgents cost the lives of 11 persons.
Two weeks earlier, on October 3, government troops with help of the Mandaya tribesmen, ambushed and killed three of southern Mindanao’s
most wanted rebel commanders and 27 of their men at sitio Sangab, barangay Pichon, in the town of Caraga, Davao Oriental.
Slain were Commander Saulo (Alexander Navarro), commanding officer of the 234 th Secondary Regional Guerrilla Unit (SRGU) of the CPP-NPA- NDF; Commander Ramel (Pablo Estander), member of the 234 th SRGU company operational command; and Commandeer Karim (Joel Fernandez), member of the 234 th MRUGU battalion operational command.
The ambush was prearranged after Davao Oriental provincial command under Lt. Col. Carlos E. Peña received information the communist rebels under Front 15, which covered the towns of Tarragona, Malay, Baganga, and Caraga, had scheduled a plenum. People’s Daily Forum, a Davao-based daily paper, reported in its October 6, 1985, edition:
‘Briefed on the unusually large communist groups about to converge in the area, Col. Peña immediately organized the ambush platoon and another team led by Capt. Binang A. Hadjiril, 433 rd PC commanding officer. The ambush platoon, which was under the operational control of the Philippine Constabulary command, had positioned itself hours
before the ambush. The second team has likewise sealed all possible routes from a handful of ambush survivors believed straggling in the neighboring areas of sitio Sangab.’
