By BEN SERRANO Correspondent BUTUAN City--The National Democratic Front (NDF) over the weekend accused Army soldiers of exhuming the remains of a man who was killed by rebels after being sentenced by a “revolutionary court” in order to carry out a smear campaign against the New People’s Army (NPA). In a statement by NDF spokesperson for northern Mindanao “Ka Maria Malaya,” the Front said the military made it appear that Cristituto Garcia was a Manobo tribal leader who was killed by the NPA for being anti-communist in Barangay Purisima, Cagwait, Surigao del Sur. But the NDF said Garcia, who was 54 years, was not a lumad leader and neither was he killed for being anti-NPA but because of his alleged crimes. “For the information of the public, Garcia was not a Lumad Manobo in Cagwait but a Cebuano who grew up in Barangay Ulip, Monkayo, Compostela Valley province,” reads a portion of the NDF statement. Malaya alleged that Garcia moved to Cagwait with his family in 2010 because of “crimes he committed in their community” that supposedly included the 1996 shooting death of one Antonio Maravilla, a Mandaya,  in Sitio Ginabsan, Barangay Upper Ulip, Monkayo, over an argument. Malaya said Garcia had also been tied to  murder, homicide, rape and robbery. In September 2010, Malaya said Garcia allegedly robbed and killed Roberto Butod in during a fiesta in Sitio Ginasan, Upper Ulip. “Roberto was just selling a boar in the area,” Malaya said. “Even in Barangay Bacolod, Cagwait, Surigao del Sur... Cristituto was a tyrant, threatened to kill whoever.. opposes the plans of the NCIP [National Commission on Indigenous Peoples].” Garcia, the NDF alleged, had six murder cases, two robbery cases, and a rape case. Malaya said it was the NCIP that caused Garcia to be referred to as a Manobo leader “even if he was not a Lumad and was a new resident of the area.” The NDF said a “revolutionary court” meted Garcia the death sentence on Oct. 30, 2015, and he was killed on Nov. 1, 2015. Rebels, according to Malaya, buried Garcia. Malaya said the Army’s 36th Infantry Battalion exhumed Garcia’s remains, and twisted the story as part of a military propaganda. “This is a desperate step of the AFP,” Malaya said.