BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Mayor Salvador Escalante expressed alarm over the recent killing of an agrarian reform cooperative farm manager in Hacienda Dalayapan, Brgy. Caduha-an, a known tourist destination in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental.
Manalo Porre, farm manager of the Dalayapan Agrarian Reform Cooperative (DARCO), was shot and killed by eight armed men on May 4. His death came almost two months after his elder brother, Larry, was also killed in the area by New People’s Army rebels.
DARCO, that supervises the well-known Darco café in Brgy. Caduha-an, Cadiz City, is composed mostly of former rebels and agrarian reform beneficiaries.
While the killing of Larry was claimed by the NPA, Escalante said the police has yet to establish the identities of the persons behind the killing of Manalo, whom he described as a “good man”.
He admitted that there is still a problem of peace and order in the area, despite its development in the past several years.
Escalante said that the city government has developed the area that used to be a hotbed of insurgency in northern Negros, by implementing infrastructure projects, such as electrification, concrete paving of roads, construction of a bridge, schools, and developing potential tourist areas. Barangay Caduha-an in Cadiz City is also a recipient of the P20 million development program, under the National Task Force–Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict.*
