3 suspected NPA rebels kill elderly man in Negros Oriental

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines – Three suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), shot to death an elderly man in a remote sub-village in Barangay Trinidad, Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental on Wednesday afternoon.

The victim was identified as Alfred Cariaga Albino, 61, a resident of Sitio Tuko, Guihulngan City, a police report through the Amigo Cops Negros Oriental Textblast Project said.

The victim’s son, who reported the incident to the police early Thursday, said around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, his father was at a “tabo” or market day in Sitio Cambairan, Barangay Trinidad in Guihulngan City.

The son said his father went to the rear of the Nina Donque Store to respond to the call of nature when three unidentified persons shot him from behind with a .45-caliber pistol for no apparent reasons.

Albino was hit at different portions of the body but managed to run and went inside the store.

The assailants followed him, dragged him out of the store and shot him to death, the police report quoted the victim’s son as saying.

The suspects then shouted, claiming to be members of the NPA.

Sitio Cambairan is a mountainous area, about 42 kilometers from the proper of Guihulngan City.

The son turned over 22 pieces of fired cartridges of .45-caliber pistol and four pieces of deformed slugs to the police.

These would be subjected to ballistics examination at the police crime laboratory in the capital city of Dumaguete.

Police are still investigating the motive for the shooting incident in Guihulngan, a city more than 100 kilometers north of here, which remains to be among the areas in Negros Oriental still affected by the insurgency problem. TVJ