NUEVA ERA, Ilocos Norte (Sept. 3) – Mayor Aldrin Garvida has vehemently denied allegation that this mountainous town is a training ground of suspected hired killers operating in the province.
Garvida claimed that upon constant dialogue with various male persons in Brgy. Sto. Nino, this town, they assured him of non-existence of training camp for guns for hire. If there is such case of training camp, the police should have acted on it, he said.
He stressed that there was no such camp in any barangay here particularly Brgy. Sto. Niño. This remote mountainous village is situated near the Ilocos Norte-Abra border.
Mostly residents of Sto. Nino are Tingguians from Abra province and due to poverty, they left Abra and settled in Sto.Nino, he explained. “We were helping them to alleviate them from poverty”, he added.
The training camp issue was brought out after the recent arrest of a person who is an alleged suspect in three separate killings. The said arrested person is a resident of Brgy. Sto. Niño, of this town. He was with his wife and child at home when police operatives pounced on him.
The suspect later bravely faced the media and claimed innocence on the multiple murder charges.
“Nalinis ti kinata-ok. Diak ammo dagiti (pammapatay) nga ipabpabasolda kaniak,” he told reporters in the dialect. (Theo S. Guiang)
