By CESAR JOLITO III

Authorities have identified four of the six suspects involved in the killing of a barangay councilor in Negros Occidental’s Cauayan town last week, police said.

According to Cauayan police chief Lt. Colonel Norberto Barniso, the four confirmed suspects are members of a communist terrorist group and are set to face formal charges.

Barniso said eyewitness accounts indicate that six armed individuals, five men and one woman, were responsible for the attack.

The victim, Barangay Councilor Ariel Calomboy, a resident of Purok 1, Barangay Tambad, was shot dead in the morning of November 3, inside his home while with his family.

Calomboy sustained fatal gunshot wounds to his chest and abdomen.

The slain councilor, an active member of an anti-communist organization, was laid to rest by his family on Sunday, November 9.

The Police Regional Office in the Negros Island Region has established a Special Investigation Task Group to probe the killing.

On November 8, the New People’s Army Southwest Negros Guerrilla Front, led by Armando Sumayang Jr., claimed responsibility for the killing./CJ, WDJ