By ARTHA KIRA PAREDES
BANGUED, Abra.–“Losing our father is the most painful and traumatic experience of our childhood years,” 10-year-old Marian Mae Acena told those who attended her father’s burial mass at the San Lorenzo Ruiz Church in Zone 3 here on Saturday morning.
Mae-Mae is the daughter of Mario Acena, 33, a supporter of Bangued mayoral candidate Ryan Luna. Acena was allegedly killed by Luna’s rival, incumbent mayor Dominic Valera, on April 29 in Barangay Cosili West and was the first recorded casualty of an election-related violent incident in Abra.
Valera has tested negative for paraffin, but police said they have witnesses who testified that he committed the crime. His lawyer, Raymond Fortun, has denied allegations against his client, saying it was Valera’s opponent, Luna, who planned to ambush him.
Valera, who is under hospital arrest at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City, lost his bid for a second term to Luna.
Speaking from the pulpit while family and friends lined up to bless Acena after the 8 a.m. mass, Mae-Mae said she and her two siblings, aged 11 and five, were still in “shock” and felt “self-pity.”
“Our mother is in great depression and sorrow” and she “cries every day,” Mae-Mae said while some people who filled the seats of old brick church started to sob and others tried to hold back tears.
Attendees wore white, with some wearing shirts printed with “Justice for Mario Acena.”
Mae-Mae thanked all who helped the family and supported them financially. She ended by saying, “Death is not pleasant but we shall always remember that life itself is a gift.”
In his homily delivered in Ilocano, Bangued parish priest Alfredo Eduarte said what happened to Acena showed the situation and the way of life in Abra.
“We should all work for peace because if not, such incidents will persist like they have in the past,” he said.
High-profile killings in Abra include the assassinations of La Paz Mayor Marc Ysrael Bernos, Congressman Luis Bersamin and Sangguniang Panlalawigan James Bersamin in 2006 and those of Mayors Jose Segundo Sr. of Tubo and Clarence Benwaren of Tineg in 2001 and 2002.
Eduarte said he hoped that people present during the mass would become “instruments of peace.”
Acena was buried in the cemetery beside the church at about 10 a.m.
On May 13, two other supporters of Luna were killed by a former municipal security guard.
Rexie Bolor, 27 and his father, Romeo Bolor , 53, were killed at 9:30 p.m. in Barangay Agtangao also in Bangued, allegedly by Mario Bringas.
According to a police report, brothers Rexie and Reynold Bolor had engaged in a fistfight in front of Bringas’ house. Bringas reportedly came out and told them to take their fight elsewhere, then shot the victims several times with a .45 caliber pistol.
Father and son were declared dead on arrival at the Abra Provincial Hospital.