By DON SO HIONG and JEREMY DIMAL
Central Luzon TV and VERA Files
(First of two parts)
SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga—The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) top brass likes to say it does not tolerate human rights violators in its ranks, but in Central Luzon, the AFP continues to have in its payroll an intelligence asset wanted for at least nine murders in Pampanga during former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s term.
AFP sources confirmed that Wilfredo T. Layug Jr. still draws a salary as an intelligence operative of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, despite being the principal respondent in four cases of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in 2006. He was wanted for five other murders at the time.
Layug, human rights activists say, is a remnant from the year Army general Jovito Palparan headed the 7th Infantry Division, from September 2005 to September 2006, when he purged Pampanga of leftist elements.
Dubbed the “Executioner” and the “Butcher” by activists for leaving a trail of EJKs in places where he had been assigned, Palparan was elected to the 14th Congress representing the party-list group Bantay.
Arroyo commended him for his fight against “the night of terror” in Central Luzon in one of her State of the Nation Addresses. She now represents Pampanga’s second district in Congress.
Layug was part of a Re-engineered Special Operations Team (RSOT) that carried out what the human rights group Karapatan said was a special military operation in Pampanga towns known to be leftist strongholds.
A communist rebel turned military asset, he was known in rebel circles and some Pampanga villages as “Ka Bong.” He appears in police records under different names—Leodegardo Layug Jr., Wilfredo T. Yumul Jr., Wilfredo T. Layug—but witnesses say he is one and the same person.
An audit of EJKs over a nine-year period from 2001 to 2010 found Pampanga to have the highest incidence of EJKs in the country. The most number of cases were reported in 2005 and 2006, the years Palparan was assigned to Central Luzon.
A month before he retired in March, former AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Ricardo David Jr. vowed to help investigate the series of killings in Mexico and San Fernando, Pampanga.
“Sabi ko nga hindi natin papayagan ang human rights violation sa Armed Forces of the Philippines (As I said, we will not allow human rights violation in the Armed Forces of the Philippines),” David said.
“Hindi natin kinakanlong itong mga sabi ko nga ay paglabag sa karapatang pantao. When I go to the field, we emphasize this to our soldiers na hindi natin nilalaro ito, that we are really committed in this advocacy (This should serve as a lesson to the members of the Armed Forces that we do not tolerate these violations of human rights. When I go to the field I emphasize this to our soldiers that we are serious about this matter, that we are really committed in this advocacy),” he added.
But despite these pronouncements, Layug has evaded warrants of arrest, proof of a serial killer’s impunity in the home province of a former president.
His victims’ relatives, meanwhile, continue to fear reprisal years after the killings, and have refused to cooperate with the police.
“Syempre natatakot na din kami sa mangyayari baka kapag nabuksan ‘to, baka balikan kami, mamaya kami naman (Of course we are fearful of what might happen once this case is opened. They might come back for us and kill us as well),” said a relative of Ofelia Torno-Rodriguez who was gunned down while she was tending to her granddaughter on Jan. 16, 2006.
In the wake of Torno-Rodriguez’s death, military assets spread rumors that she was killed because she was a New People’s Army supporter. Known as “Nanay Pearl” in her village, Barangay Divisoria, Mexico town, she was accused of bringing food to communist rebels, a charge her neighbors denied.
But what was widely known at the time was that Torno-Rodriguez was the convenor of the Stop Palparan Alliance, which in 2005 demanded Palparan’s discharge as commander of the 7th Infantry Divison.
A witness positively identified “Ka Bong” as her gunman, although this witness was told that the gunman’s name was Wilfredo T. Yumul.
Just six days earlier, on Jan. 10, “Ka Bong” killed Antonio Adriales, a suspected runner of the communist breakaway group Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan in Laug, also in Mexico. A former comrade of “Ka Bong” testified in a sworn statement that “Ka Bong” was the gunman.
Adriales’ relatives refuse to talk about the case, saying it would be risky for them to say anything. “Matagal na po ‘yan, baka mapahamak pa kami (That is an old issue, we might just get involved),” one of them said.
In May 2006, five months after Adriales’ death, “Ka Bong” struck again, this time killing Manuel Nardo, the co-owner of a videoke bar and canteen in Barangay Quebiawan here. Nardo was a member of the party-list group Bayan Muna.
A witness saw “Ka Bong” flee the canteen on a motorcycle. Shown a rogue’s gallery of wanted criminals, the witness was able to identify “Ka Bong,” whose name was listed as “Wilfredo T. Layug.”
Ka Bong’s name surfaced again in July 2006, when another suspected leftist, Arnel Guevarra, was shot dead in his home in Malino, Mexico town.
A group of five armed men, Ka Bong among them, actually came looking for Guevarra’s father Oscar who lived next door. When the elder Guevarra refused to let them in, the men forcefully entered his house but did not see the father, who was hiding under his bed.
When they could not find the old man, the armed men proceeded to the house of Guevarra’s son Arnel, who opened the door and switched on the lights, only to be gunned down at close range.
“Si Leodegardo Layug Jr. alias Ka Bong. Kahit hindi ko nakita ang buong itsura ni Ka Bong ay kilala ko siya sa tindig, boses at ang itsura ng kanyang talampakan na malalapad, dahil ako ay nakapagtago sa ilalim ng papag nang pumasok sila sa aking bahay bago siya lumipat sa bahay ng aking anak (It was Leodegardo Layug Jr. with an alias Ka Bong. Even if I did not see him closely, I knew it was him because I know his posture, voice and even how his feet/sole looks like because they are broad. [I saw it] because I was able to hide under the bed when they went inside our home before they went to my son’s house nearby),” the elder Guevarra said.
“Alam ko na si Ka Bong ay ginagamit ng Philippine Army at ilang beses na nila akong kinukumbida na makipag-dayalogo pero hindi ko pina-unlakan ang imbitasyon nila. At minsan ay nagtalo na kami ng isang opisyal ng Army tungkol sa pamimilit nilang kumbidahin ako na pumunta sa kanilang headquarters (I know that Ka Bong is being used by the Philippine Military as an asset, and they have been inviting me to have a conversation with them but I declined. There was a time that I even argued with one of the Army officials about their forcing me to go to their headquarters),” he added.
By 2007, prosecutors filed murder charges against the suspects in all four killings. Two are docketed at the Regional Trial Court Branch 44—Criminal Case No. 15501 for the Nardo killing and Criminal Case No. 15387 for Torno-Rodriguez’s.
The murder of Adriales is docketed as at the RTC Branch 42, while the case of Guevarra is filed as Criminal Case No. 15552 at the RTC Branch 43.
In the Guevarra case, there is a standing warrant of arrest for “PFC Wilfredo Yumul Jr.”
These were not the only killings “Ka Bong” has to answer for. The Regional Prosecutor’s Office in City of San Fernando, Pampanga said “Ka Bong” is also a respondent in five earlier cases of murder and one frustrated murder from 2002 to 2005.
Warrants of arrest were served in the different areas in Pampanga listed as Layug’s addresses. But he remains at large, all cases so far archived by the courts.
According to sources, “Ka Bong” faces court martial for conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline.
Read the conclusion, Unsolved Luisita killings show Tarlac’s poor human rights record
(This story is part of the VERA Files project “Human Rights Case Watch” supported by The Asia Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development.)