Murder of Red-tagged doctor, husband could be related to work, NPA — police

MANILA, Philippines — Police said the murder of a Red-tagged doctor and her husband in Negros Oriental could be related to work or the New People’s Army (NPA).

Central Visayas police chief Brig. Gen. Ronnie Montejo said in a press briefing Monday that the suspects behind the killing of Dr. Mary Rose Sancelan and her husband Edwin could be members of the Central Negros 1 under the NPA’s Leonardo Panaligan Command.

According to Montejo, Sancelan issued an affidavit attested on September 6, 2019, where she said that she was informed by her nurse in November 2017 that “a list was thrown on the streets accusing [her] as alias ‘JB Regalado.’”

The accusation, she said, came from anticommunist vigilante group called Kagubak.

In that affidavit, Montejo said Sancelan noted that she does not know why the group would tag her as a member or supporter of the NPA.

“I vehemently denied their accusations and considered them as not true and baseless,” Sancelan said in the affidavit presented by Montejo.

She also said she made the affidavit to clear her name and to ask for protection from the police.

Montejo, however, said that this might have angered the communist rebels.

“Maybe, this caused the CTGs (Communist Terrorist Groups) to get hurt or get angry with her considering that she disowned their organization,” he said.

Montejo noted that there was also a blotter recorded in Guihulngan City Police and dated June 9, 2020 wherein Sancelan complained that a fellow doctor was threatening her.

“Based on the police blotter recorded in Guihulngan City Police Station dated June 9, 2020, the victim received death threats from her fellow doctor. Further, some of her co-workers did not like her management style being the head of the local IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) on COVID-19,” he added.

He said the doctor had sent Sancelan a text message to threaten her, and also uttered threatening words against her sometime in April.

“The suspect (fellow doctor) was having grudges to her regarding their working relationship,” said Montejo.

Sancelan was the head of the Guihulngan City Inter-Agency Task Force against Emerging Infectious Diseases. Two gunmen shot her and her husband while on their way home to Carmeville Subdivision in Barangay Poblacion on December 15.

Before the shooting, Sancelan was included in the list of residents in the city whom the Kagubak group has accused of being supporters of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing NPA.

The doctor had previously expressed fears over her safety after she was Red-tagged by the group.

Progressive lawmakers in the House of Representatives and other groups have denounced the murder, saying it proved the serious danger of being labeled communists. [ac]