‘Purge’ victims discovered

INOPACAN, Leyte — The new killing field is called "The Garden."

Sixty-seven skeletal remains of alleged New People’s Army (NPA) rebels were discovered here, buried in a shallow grave in what is now believed to be the biggest "killing field" of the communist rebel group in the country.

The bodies were found lying on top of each other in a shallow grave located in the mountain some 378 meters above sea level within the Mahaplagap-Baybay-Inopacan complex, a known rebel stronghold located some 200 kilometers from Tacloban City.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon personally saw for himself how Army troops unearthed some of the skeletal remains of the victims of summary executions by the communist rebels.

Esperon visited the site yesterday accompanied by police forensic experts and victims’ relatives, who openly wept as the remains were unearthed.

Troops and relatives have dug up at least 67 bodies in the area known as "The Garden."

The military said the shallow graves could contain the remains of as many as 300 people, based on information from former rebels and victims’ relatives.

"Some of the relatives wept, and the others were happy because of the prospect of an end to their search for loved ones who have long been missing," military spokesman Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said.

Esperon added the remains were those of the victims of the NPA’s "Oplan VD (Venereal Disease)" internal purges.

"Barbaric, animalistic, gruesome," Esperon declared as he held his emotions in seeing how some of the remains were unearthed from their shallow graves which were hidden underneath tall trees and shrubs in Sitio Sapang Bato, Barangay Kaulisihan here.

"Discovery of the mass grave here is evidence of the true nature of the CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines- New People’s Army). The CPP have been accusing the military and police of committing human rights violations when in fact they (themselves) have been the one engaged in rampant rights abuses. They will (really) kill their own (comrades)," Esperon declared.

He said the vicious cycle of internal purges in the NPA is continuing.

This was evidenced by the recent seizure by Army troops of documents in a recent encounter in Catanauan, Quezon detailing "Oplan Bushfire" to "cleanse" its ranks of suspected government spies and military deep penetration agents.

"This discovered mass grave is believed to be among the many others used by the CPP-NPA in cleansing its ranks of informers and government deep penetration agents here as part of its ‘Oplan Linis’ being conducted a special team," Esperon said.

Communist leaders have acknowledged that a number of rebel commanders killed 600 to 900 suspected spies and government informers in Mindanao during the 1980s.

More than 60 other suspected spies were killed in Quezon province and outlying areas, according to people who survived the purges.

After learning of the purges, top rebel leaders ordered them stopped.

Their commanders were investigated and eventually expelled from the rebel movement.

The guerrillas later acknowledged the killings as among the most horrible blunders in the Marxist insurgency, which has raged for 37 years.

Army 8th Division commander Maj. Gen. Rodrigo Maclang said the mass grave came from "Oplan Anti-VD."

The purge plan was initially relayed by relatives of the victims, who for the past 21 years have been searching for their missing loved ones.

Maclang said victims’ relatives guided the Army troops on the "Garden," the known killing fields of the Evelyn Dublin Command of the NPA’s Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee.

Residents said the place is where the NPA conduct their "kangaroo court" hearings since 1985.

Until its discovery last Aug. 25, it is widely believed the burial site is being used as the execution area and burial ground of suspected government spies.

"More or less one hundred people were massacred and buried in this mass grave by ruthless leadership of the CPP-NPA-NDF here," according to Lt. Col. Mario Lacurom, 43rd Infantry Battalion commander which has jurisdiction over the area.

Lacurom added the Garden is just one of many sites they are searching in the province to locate other disappearances.

Lacurom said the local folks initially informed him and his troops that the NPA "expanded" the cleansing of its ranks of government in the 1980s.

Nine of the victims were found still blindfolded when their remains were dug by police and Army troops.

Tortured

As recounted by a former guerrilla who is now in Army custody, the suspected spies were first tortured before they were being hacked or stabbed to death.

Some even died before they could even reach the "Garden," former NPA commander Zacarias Piedad said.

"Walang putukang nangyari dito. Sinaksak lang sa leeg o kaya sa puso. Ang iba namatay sa palo (There were no gunshots. Either they were stabbed in the neck or hacked)," Piedad said.

He claimed being the leader of an NPA unit assigned to secure the Garden.

Piedad, the former commander of the NPA’s Southern Leyte Front Committee, now works as an employee of the local government here.

So far, one of the 67 dug up skeletons has been identified by relatives as Domingo Eras.

"He (Eras) was abducted by NPA armed men sometime in 1985 and I vividly remembered the clothes he was wearing when they were abducted in our place (Barangay Monterico in Baybay town)," his brother Gregorio said.

He said the rebels also snatched their father Leonardo Sr. and elder brother Leonardo.

Since then, the three were never seen again until the discovery of the mass grave.

"Pagdakop nila sa barangay centro ng mga NPA naa ako ug nakita ko ang panghitabo, (when they were arrested in our poblacion I was there and I saw all what happened)," Gregorio said.

He claimed his brother was an active NPA guerrilla who had grown tired of fighting and wanted to get out.

"After three months he was (with) us, heavily armed NPAs entered our barangay and took him, along with my father and our eldest brother," Gregorio said.

"Galit nag alit ako sa kanila (NPA), at kung meron pa sa kanila na pumunta dito lalabanan ko sila (I am very angry and if any of them comes here, I will fight them)," he said.

Maclang said most of the victims buried here were executed after the communist leadership ordered its commanders in Southern Leyte to implement Oplan VD in the second half of the 1980s.

"This resulted in the maltreatment, torture and summary executions of more than a hundred innocent CPP-NPA members suspected of being deep-penetration agents and innocent civilians suspected of being government informers," Maclang said.

Several witnesses now under military custody tagged CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison, as well as Luis Jalandoni and Satur Ocampo, then CPP Central Committee top leaders, as the ones who allegedly ordered the purges.

The witnesses, some of them former rebel leaders in the province, bonded together to fight their former comrades.

"These former communist leaders and members have signified their willingness to stand as witnesses in court and to testify that the purging was ordered by Sison, Jalandoni and Ocampo," Maclang said.

Ocampo, now Bayan Muna party-list representative, denied any involvement in the purges.

He suspected the Army may have announced the graves’ alleged existence to bolster government claims that communist guerrillas were behind numerous recent killings of left-wing activists.

The killings have been condemned by human rights groups and prompted President Arroyo to order an investigation.

Left-wing groups have blamed the recent killings on the military, which has denied involvement.

"I was not aware when those supposed purgings were happening," said Ocampo, who was jailed from 1976-85, then escaped and rejoined the rebels.

Ocampo was arrested again in 1989. He decided not to rejoin when he was freed several years later.

On the other hand, police forensic teams have taken the lead role in identifying the remains.

Senior Superintendent Angelo Cordero, Scene of the Crime Office (SOCO) chief of Eastern Visayas PNP, said they were able to determine three of the victims were female.

"All the victims, except for one who is under age, were males 18 years old and above," Cordero said.

He said their initial investigation of the site indicated some of the victims had been buried more than 10 years.

"We do want that all these victims to be identified by their relatives so that they could be given decent burial," Cordero said.

He said the other remains would be sent to Manila for further forensic investigation. - With AP