Bloody Family War in Pangasinan

ASSASSIN:A bullet vest clad suspected 
assassin Arnulfo Calaunan being 
interrogated by the Philippine 
National Police investigator from the
 provincial police office. This photo was
taken 30 minutes after he was arrested
in gun fire chase.

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

According to my source, the Philippine National Police would help get justice to the Calaunans of Barangay Talebaew, Calasiao, Pangasinan whose bloody feud that started last year with the Mesinas of Brgy. Longos, Calasiao snapped several lives already.

Longos Brgy. Chairman Muja Dave Mesina and
wife. This photo was taken from the wallet of
suspected avenger cum hit man Arnulfo Mesina.
"I took their photo from Face Book," he said.

My police source told me that the grudge war between the two families have cost  five lives and four wounded persons already through gun fires since the traffic altercation that turned physical between Brgy. Chairman Maja Dave Mesina and Albert Calaunan in Brgy. Talebaew in 2012.

Calaunans version of the Event that Trigger the Killings

When I accidentally met last October 21 at the Justice Hall of Dagupan City two Calaunan sisters Arlene Calaunan Bautista and Beth Calaunan Millan when they accompanied their brother Arnulfo Calaunan, who was in hand cuffed and was guarded by ten fully armed policemen in camouflage uniform, who wounded Muja Dave and killed his body guard at the public market of Calasiao last October 18 (you can accessed the complete story of the shooting incidents and the photos of the personalities there at http://wwwmortzcortigoza.blogspot.com/2013/10/fil-am-assassin-arrested-after-shooting.html), Arlene told me that the altercation ensued when both Albert and Mesina nearly  bumped each other motorcycles at Brgy. Talebaew in August 2012.

Wounded body guard of Brgy Chairman  Mesina

“Kasama ni  Albert iyong pamangkin namin na si Jumel (Calaunan Millan), si Kapitan Mesina naman kaangkas niya iyong anak niya. Mainit si Kapitan kaya noong bumaba sinuntok siya ng kapatid ko sa ulo pero naka-ilag dahil karatista pala siya. Ang ginawa ng kapatid ko ni hand locked niya sa likod si Kapitan. Tapos dumating iyong dalawang pinsan namin”.

Arlene denied to me when I told her that the aiding cousins help mauled Mesina as what I heard from some quarters.

“Pinabayaan silang dalawang magsuntukan. Pero si Kapitan nagbanta sa kapatid ko”.

Arlene said she wants the media to monitor thoroughly the case since their lives and their siblings and relatives are in danger.

“Pati kami ng ate ko (Beth) ay nagtatago na sa Manila”.

That fisticuff or the mauling incident has been the powder keg to the spates of killings on the sides of both parties.

Provincial Director Marlou Chan gives his piece
on the peace and order situation in Pangasinan
to an ABS/CBN TV reporter.

Chronology of the Murder Cases

In October 2012, Albert Calaunan was killed by hired gun in Marikina. In December 21, 2012 the father of Muja Dave, Antonio Mesina, a retiring Examiner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, was ambushed by riders in tandem in Brgy. Lasip.

The police in Calasiao arrested Rogelio de Luna – the suspected killer of Antonio – and a case of murder was filled against him.

In July 2013 Jumel Calaunan Millan, the back rider on the motorcycle of Albert Calaunan when the latter bitterly argued and engaged Muja Dave in a fist fight was wounded by an assassin allegedly hired by the Mesinas.

A case was filled by the police against Muja Dave but was immediately dismissed by the provincial prosecutor in Dagupan City as baseless and full of loopholes.

Elvira Quenoljico, the alleged informer of the Mesinas in Barangay Talibaew who monitored the movements of the Calaunans, was murdered by hit men.

Arlito Estrada, 36, the alleged provider of hired killers for the Calaunan, was peppered by bullets from long and short firearms by hired guns that came out from a black car in Brgy. Minien, Santa Barbara.

In October 18, 2013 after the peace covenant of candidates for the October 28 village polls, Mesina and two of his body guards were gunned down by Arnulfo Calaunan, a U.S citizen who arrived last August, when he saw the trio buying banana and lansonez at the fruit stand in Calasiao.

 “The Mesinas have killed my brother and wounded my nephew. My other relatives have migrated to Manila because we heard that the Mesinas wanted to exterminate all of them,” the police source quoted Calaunan, who was still dripping with water after he was found hiding on the watery part of the grassy area.

Provincial Director Marlou Chan Relieved Chief of Police of Calasiao

Because of this seeming police negligence in preventing a blood bath at the heart of the town, my source told me that provincial director Senior Superintendent Marlou Chan through a commander’s prerogative relieved Calasiao Chief of Police Noel Vallo after the incident after it was found out that there was no police men guarding the peripheries of the puto stalls, a major thoroughfare, after the peace covenant and the meeting of the candidates at the municipal hall.

Another high official at the provincial police office told me that Vallo was relieved because of the PNP three-strike policy.

“Noong last week si Lolita Rancudo , (60, Department of Education) supervisor (of Calasiao II of the Department of Education) and her husband were killed by bullets by riders in Tandem in Brg. Macabito in Calasiao. Before Mesina and his body guards were shot by Calaunan, Amado Lomibao Miranda,60,  a jueteng bet collector, was shot by motorcycle riding criminals at 7 a.m of the same day at Sitio Cabarun in Brgy. Banaoang, Calasiao”

My earlier source told me the Calaunans felt they were unfairly treated by the justice system after the prosecutor dismissed the case against Muja Dave on a frustrated murder case against him filled by the police  (under the watch of Vallo's predecessor) on behalf of Jumel.

“Kaya si Arnulfo was determined to avenge by himself because he felt the police in Calasiao was not on their sides”.

Police to file cases against Mesina and his body guard

After the wounding of Muja Dave and the wounding and killing of his body guards – where unlicensed hand guns were found, the police provincial office under Colonel Chan was hell-bent to file illegal possession of firearm and election gun ban law to the surviving body guard, and a disqualification case against Mesina who enlisted body guards without following the requisites of the laws on illegal possession of firearm and the ban of the Commission on Election on bearing, carrying , or transporting of firearms or other deadly weapons.

After Police filled murder case against Calaunan, would the spates of murders stop?

Last October 21 ten armed to the teeth policemen of Calasiao brought Arnulfo at the provincial prosecutor’s office in Dagupan City for inquest by filling murder, frustrated murder, illegal position of a .45 caliber hand gun, and election gun ban raps against him.

With Arnulfo behind bar in a non-bailable murder case as he awaits for his trial at the Regional Trial Court, and with Muja Dave survived the assassin’s bullets, and Beth Calaunan Millan plans to reopen the case against his son Jumel who was allegedly ordered by Muja Dave to be murdered but survived, would the bloody family war in Calasiao, Pangasinan come to end?

(Send comments to totomortz@yahoo.com)