In the annals of Davao del Sur, 1982 will go down as a hapless year. Two municipal mayors from the province became the victims of insurgency. Both died from ambush.
First to fall was Digos mayor Nonito Llanos Jr., who was shot on June 26, 1982, while attending a coronation at barangay Aplaya, in the same municipality (now a city). His father, who was his namesake, was the former governor of the province.
Four months thereafter, Sebastian Mondejar, the mayor of the municipality of Sulop, was also ambushed on November 3 in a remote village. He was killed along with sixteen troopers, policemen, and militiamen. Three other members of the contingent, namely a civilian home defense force (CHDF) and two servicemen of the Philippine Constabulary (PC) survived. The seven ill-fated cops were from the towns of Malalag and Sulop.
An account filed by Satur P. Apoyon and Antonio M. Ajero, Davao correspondents for the Philippine Daily Express, reported that Mondejar was leading a group to validate a story that a CHDF trainer was killed in barangay Lapla Dos three days earlier. However, upon reaching the hamlet of Labon-Gamay in barangay Labun-Dako, ten kilometers from town, they were waylaid.
The victim, recognized as an experienced karate practitioner, was a protégé of the slain mayor; he was assigned to train the CHDF members and the tanod brigade in the art of self-defense.
Col. Dionisio S. Tan-Gatue, Jr., PC-INP regional command 11 head, related that the culprits first lobbed a hand-grenade before strafing the clueless party from both sides of the road.
Elements from the 56th PC Battalion and a strike force from Camp Catitipan, Davao City, were later dispatched to reinforce the troops led by Col. Laudemer Kahulugan, the provincial commander of Davao del Sur, who was leading the manhunt of the killers at the borders of the towns of Sulop, Malalag, and Kiblawan, Davao del Sur, and in Malungon, South Cotabato.
The search for a dangerous fugitive in due course resulted in the arrest of Faustino Remolleno, the barangay captain of Lapla, the suspected brain behind the ambush. To mislead authorities, he earlier reported the incident to the authorities immediately after it happened.
The initial probe yielded information that Remolleno was recruited by the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed group of the rebel movement, just three weeks after winning as barangay captain in the May 17, 1982, village polls.
Charged along with the mastermind before the sala of Judge Rose Letrondo-Montejo were Luis Fausal, Buenaventura Palma, Pedrito Certifico, Maximo Pangilinan, Jesus Colorado, Inocencio Banogbanog, Favino Combarijan, Santiago Cobol, Rustica Solatoric, Mary Vegas, Servillano Lirasam, Diosdado Batucan, Jr., Agustin Jurial, and a certain Mrs. Enriquez.
Over three decades later, three former town mayors also died from separate causes.
Bansalan mayor Peter Melchor Arches, on October 31, 2012, died in a Davao City hospital due to heart ailment while Bansalan OIC-mayor Romulo Nuyad, 66 years old, was stabbed by armed robbers in his residence at Villa Doneza, Poblacion 2, Bansalan, on May 12, 2013. Two years later, Kiblawan mayor Jaime Caminero fell from a stack of copra at his warehouse in Lat-an village, hitting his skull against the concrete floor; he was 72 years old. He died in a Davao City hospital where he was brought and treated.
Some mayors, however, were more fortunate than others. On September 4, 2012, mayor Jerry Cawa of Sarangani, then part of Davao del Sur, was ambushed by unidentified assailants while on his way home barangay Batunganding. One of his two escorts was wounded. Authorities suspect the incident was politically motivated.
