ILOILO CITY — The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has condemned the spate of killings in Negros Oriental and accused the military, police and paramilitary forces as behind the attacks and the deaths of at least 13 persons in the past five days.
Five persons, including a city councilor and a former town mayor, were separately gunned down overnight in Canlaon City and the towns of Ayungon and Siaton.
The killings brought to at least 13 the victims of shooting incidents in the province since July 23, when lawyer Anthony Trinidad was gunned down in the city center of Guihulngan.
Armed men broke into the house of Canlaon City councilor Ramon Jalandoni before shooting him at 12:14 a.m. on Saturday.
Jalandoni was brought to the Canlaon District Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival by attending physicians.
Two hours later, around 2:30 a.m., unidentified gunmen shot dead former Ayungon town mayor Edsel Enardecido and Leo Enardecido, reportedly a cousin of Edsel, in Barangay Tampocon in Ayungon.
Also killed was Ernesto Posadas, village chief of Panubigan in Canlaon City. There were still no details of his killing.
Around 7:20 p.m. on Friday, assailants on board a motorcycle gunned down Fedirico Sabejon in Barangay 3, Siaton town.
The Philippine National Police in Negros Oriental earlier reported that gunmen in several of the attacks identified themselves as members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
But in a statement issued on Saturday, the CPP accused state agents of being behind the attacks.
It said the attacks were “the handiwork of the Duterte fascist regime and its military, police and paramilitary forces, including its henchmen in the Revolutionary Proletarian Army/Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB).”
The RPA-ABB broke away from the CPP and NPA in the 1990s before entering a peace pact with the government.
“The CPP holds the Duterte regime responsible for the Negros murder frenzy. The killings are Duterte’s cowardly retaliation for the losses suffered by his police forces last July 14 in Ayungon town in Negros Oriental,” according to the CPP statement.
“Unable to hit the NPA, Duterte’s armed minions have directed his wrath against civilians who the (Armed Forces of the Philippines) have red-tagged and accused of being sympathizers of the NPA,” it said.
It called on the government to “abide by the Geneva Convention and other international protocols, and called on all of Duterte’s forces to stop targeting and killing civilians.”
The CPP directed the NPA to intensify offensives “to punish the most abusive military and police forces and defend the people of Negros and the toiling masses across the country.” /lb