By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Philippine Army condemned the killing of one of their retired members in Barangay Sebucawan, Isabela, Negros Occidental, last Friday, allegedly perpetrated by members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
303rd Infantry Brigade (303IB) commander, Colonel Elizer Losañes, said the CPP-NPA did not have a valid reason to kill 49-year-old Melvin Tovis, a resident of Barangay Libas in the said town.
Losañes said Tovis was no longer a soldier, but a civilian, and what the CPP-NPA did was “plain murder.”
He said, based on the investigation of the police, one of the gunmen was speaking in Cebuano and may have come from Negros Oriental.
Isabela town police chief, Police Chief Inspector Edcel Balibadlan, meanwhile, said Tovis was taking his afternoon coffee when five unidentified men approached and shot him.
Tovis sustained four gunshot wounds and was declared dead on arrival at the Ignacio Arroyo Memorial District Hospital.
Police determined the suspects used a .45 caliber pistol.
Balibadlan added the shooting could be a revenge killing by the CPP-NPA, as Tovis was responsible for the killing of two CPP-NPA members when they attacked a property at Hacienda Bonifacio in Barangay Tinongan, last year.
Police are presently conducting a follow-up operation against the suspects./WDJ