Title: Banca’s Sole Witness, on Hunt
Case: Trespass to dwelling and illegal search
Perpetrators: Unidentified men
Date of Incident: November 16, 2008
Place of Incident: Sitio Giragid, Brgy. Libertad, Banate, Iloilo
ACCOUNT OF THE INCIDENT:
Dante Tanaman, 28 year old, single, a resident of Sitio Giragid, Libertad, Banate, the sole witness for Jose “Moting” Banca’s murder case is on hunt when unidentified men forcibly enter his house and busted the entire place on November 16, 2008.
About 10:00 pm of November 16, his neighbor, Enrico Banca, brother of the murdered Jose Moting Banca went home from the wake and pass by Dante’s house. As he come closer he heard sounds coming inside the house. He stopped for sometime to listen but did not dare to come closer; instead he went through his way home, unaware that all household members of Dante were out to attend a wake of a friend in a nearby barangay.
November 17 at about 8 am, Dante went home from the wake of Moting to attend for his personal necessities and to his surprise he saw the door’s padlock was busted and the entire house was wrecked although nothing was reported missing from their belongings.
That night, he went home together with Enrico at about 8:00 pm when they saw two suspicious men standing in front of their house near the sugarcane area. Brought by fear, Dante did not proceed to his house and instead, sleep at Enrico’s house.
Two days after this incident, about six unidentified men was again seen infront of their house between 6 to 7 pm.
Case background:
The recent victim is Jose “Muting” Banca, 32 years old and a resident of barangay Libertad, Banate, Iloilo. On the night of November 9, 2008, he was stabbed to death by assassins who were identified as workers of Hacienda Valderrama. Jose Banca was one of the 72-CLOA-holders of the 99-hectare agricultural lands owned by Danilo Valderama located at barangay Libertad, Banate, Iloilo. In 2005, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) awarded a Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in the said area but because of the landowner’s resistance, until now the farmers have remained un-installed. Since then, the ARBs have been actively campaigning for their installation. From 2005 to present, several criminal cases such as theft and qualified theft were filed against the beneficiaries. The cases filed by Valderama were purely malicious with the intent of merely harassing the CLOA-holders.
PROGRESO Inc./RIGHTS/KATARUNGAN
November 23, 2008