In a post on Facebook on Tuesday, 26 July 2022, Eric HJ Mallonga claimed: “Bato’s Alsa Masa cannibalized Fr. Tullio Favali’s brain. Now he wants ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) in SHS (Senior High School) for military discipline. Discipline pala yon?” The claim is false.
Mallonga was apparently alluding to Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa’s support to the proposal to revive ROTC. The lawmaker has identified it as one of his priority bills.
Here are the facts:
Favali, an Italian missionary, was shot to death on 11 April 1985 in Tulunan, North Cotabato by members of the vigilante group Ilaga (Rat) led by brothers Norberto, Edilberto and Elpidio. Witnesses said the killers ate parts of his brain. https://www.mindanews.com/c3-news/2008/01/timeline-favali-murder-11-april-1985-25-january-2008/
The Manero brothers and other followers of the group were convicted for Favali’s murder in a 45-page decision dated 27 July 1987 but promulgated on 4 September 1987 by Judge Benjamin Estanol.
Ilaga, whose members believed their amulets made them invincible, operated as a paramilitary group used in the fight against Moro and communist rebels during the Marcos regime.
Fellow Italian missionary Fr. Peter Geremia, not Favali, was the real target of Manero’s group. The former was suspected of having links with the underground movement.
Ilaga was formed by Feliciano Luces a.k.a. Commander Toothpick at the height of the Philippine government’s campaign against the Moro National Liberation Front, which waged a war for an independent Moro homeland. https://militias-guidebook.com/pgag/175/
On the other hand, the Alsa Masa was founded in 1984 by Agdao Barangay Chair Wilfredo “Baby” Aquino, to counter the growing New People’s Army presence in Davao City. Suspected rebel hitmen shot him dead in 1985. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1054822/in-the-know-alsa-masa
Lt. Col. Franco M. Calida, then chief of the Davao Metro District Command, revived the Alsa Masa in 1986, months after Corazon C. Aquino assumed the presidency after the ouster of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr. via the EDSA People Power Revolt.
Liberals in the Aquino government warned that vigilante groups could evolve into the Philippine equivalents of the death squads in Latin America. But Aquino was prevailed upon by the right wing in her fractious administration. In fact, during a visit to Davao City, she hailed the Alsa Masa as a concrete manifestation of people power, a tacit approval of vigilantism as a counterinsurgency measure. https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,964324-1,00.html
Evidently, Dela Rosa was not behind the group that cannibalized Favali’s brain. The Alsa Masa was also not involved. The Ilaga group of the Maneros did it.
As with all our other reports, MindaNews welcomes leads or suggestions from the public to potential fact-check stories. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno / MindaNews)
(This fact-check piece was produced with the support of Internews’ Philippine Fact-Checker Incubator Project.)
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