By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The New People’s Army (NPA) Northern Negros Guerilla Front yesterday claimed responsibility for the deaths of Calatrava planter Norberto Lumayno and his driver Danilo Braga.
NPA-Roselyn Pelle Command spokesperson Cecil Estrella said Lumayno was found guilty by the revolutionary court over the killing of innocent farmers and illegally amassing properties in the towns of Calatrava, Toboso, and Don Salvador Benedicto.
“Lumayno is a notorious land grabber and, in the process of doing so, is using his own goons in order to forcefully evict the farmers,” Estrella said.
The communist rebels also held Lumayno responsible for the murders of several individuals, including a certain ‘Bador’ of Barangay Minautoc, Calatrava in 2007 and Reynaldo Bocaling of Toboso in 2009, whose families filed a case against him in the revolutionary court in 2012.
The rebel group spokesperson added, Lumayno had been a target since 2013 after their court issued a warrant for his arrest.
Since then, Estrella claimed, the planter “made the situation worse for the oppressed farmers.”
Previously, Lumayno and Braga were ambushed by around 15 NPA gunmen in Barangay Minapasok, Calatrava.
Minutes after the incident, a firefight erupted in neighboring Barangay Cambayobo after members of the 62nd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army encountered the gunmen.
Recently, the Lumayno family expressed doubt the NPA was behind the incident and instead blamed local barangay officials./WDJ