By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
The 303rd Infantry Brigade (303IBde) of the Philippine Army vowed to seek justice following the gruesome killings of four family members in Negros Occidental’s Himamaylan City.
Brigadier General Orlando Edralin, 303IBde commander, said yesterday they condemned the brutal killing “in the strongest possible terms” and will “spare no effort” to bring the victims to justice.
“As your defenders, we will closely coordinate with the Philippine National Police to fast-track the resolution of the crime and bring the perpetrators to justice,” Edralin said in a statement.
On Wednesday night, June 14, the couple — 52-year-old Rolly Fausto and wife 49-year-old Emilda — and their two sons, aged 11 and 15, sustained gunshot wounds at their home at Barangay Buenavista’s Sitio Kangkiling.
Rolly was found 50 meters away from the house.
Their remains were retrieved and brought to a funeral home on Thursday afternoon, June 15.
The barangay is one of the New People’s Army (NPA) influenced villages in central Negros where several members have died from encounters in recent years.
Earlier, the Himamaylan City Police Station considered the massacre as insurgency-related, based on the initial investigation.
The 303IBde also dismissed NPA claims linking government troops to the incident, saying the allegations are “nothing but an attempt by the desperate NPA to tarnish the reputation of the Army.”
“These communist terrorists quickly blame the Army without proof to mislead the people and to hide their guilty hands,” the statement read.
The 94th Infantry Battalion (IB) has also condemned the killings.
“The 303IBde condemns the NPA for killing innocent civilians on mere suspicions of being military informants. [It] strongly denies the claims that the three slain civilians were military spies,” the 94IB said.
“The NPA in Negros is in a rampage against civilians suspected as military informants,” after they “suffered defeats in gun battles with soldiers in the hinterlands of Himamaylan City that claimed the lives of its key leaders,” they added.
The NPA’s Apolinario Gatmaitan Command accused the 94IB of involvement in the family murder in a statement released to the media in Bacolod City.
Same group?
Meanwhile, Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office spokesperson, Captain Judesses Catalogo, said they are not ruling out the possibility that the massacre is insurgency-related.
Catalogo believed the massacre could have also been done by the same NPA members who had torched heavy equipment in the adjacent Barangay Carabalan this week.
Based on reports, several NPA fighters were spotted in Barangay Buenavista’s Sitio Busay trying to convince residents to support and engage in extortion activities.
As of yesterday afternoon, Catalogo said they have not yet received updates from Himamaylan City police.
However, he affirmed that Western Visayas Police Regional Office director, Brigadier General Sidney Villaflor ordered city police chief Lt. Colonel Reynante Jomocan to prioritize collecting solid evidence and witness testimonies regarding the murder.
Villaflor also called on the residents of Barangay Buenavista and Carabalan who may have information over the massacre and the arson attack to surface, saying the incident was a “baseless killing of civilians, who do not have the means to fight back.”
‘Overall peaceful’
Himamaylan City Mayor Raymund Tongson assured city residents of the overall peaceful situation despite the murder and burning of heavy equipment incidents in the locality.
Tongson believes that the city will likely be tagged as one of the election watchlist areas in the province in the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in October.
He hoped the recent incidents will not affect the upcoming polls./With reports from PNA / DGB, WDJ