Remains Of Summary Execution Victims Probed: NPAs attack soldiers securing forensic team

BALINGASAG, Misamis Oriental — Communist rebels fired at a vehicle of government troops securing forensic experts from Manila who were probing the skeletal remains of alleged victims of summary executions by the New People’s Army (NPA) in a remote village here yesterday.

Maj. Samuel Sagun, public affairs officer of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, said two teenagers who had hitched a ride with the Charlie Company of the 8th Infantry Battalion were wounded when five rebels fired at the soldiers’ mini cruiser at about 10 a.m.

Sagun said the soldiers had come from Sitio Dansuli in Barangay San Juan and were on their way to Sitio Solo in Barangay Samay when the guerrillas belonging to the Front Committee 4B of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA’s North Central Mindanao Regional Committee attacked them.

The soldiers, according to Sagun, fought back and survived the ambush. However, Gaspar Tandayan, 16, and Ridzmar Karay, 15, who had hitched a ride with them, were hit in the back and right foot, respectively.

The condition of the two teeners has worsened, and their families have appealed for medicines.

Col. Andrelino Colina, 8th IB commanding officer, said additional troops were dispatched to the area to pursue the ambushers who had fled toward the Cabulig River.

1Lt. Edgardo Taloroc, 8th IB operations officer, said the rebels were apparently stepping up their tactical offensives because they have suffered huge losses in the area.

Because of the attack, the forensic experts from Manila decided to postpone their investigation into the skeletal remains, which the 8th IB unearthed in shallow graves here last July 7.

"Buti na lang nag-chopper sila, otherwise nadamay din sila (It was good that they boarded a chopper, otherwise they could have been affected)," Sagun said.

Military authorities learned about the presence of the shallow graves last month after residents of Sitio Lantad in Barangay Kibanban, some of whom had witnessed the NPA executions, tipped them off.

Colina said the executions were part of the NPA’s "Operation Ajos" against suspected government infiltrators.

The residents recounted how some of the victims were forced to march from as far as Mat-i, Claveria town to the execution sites, their heads covered with jute sacks and their hands tied behind their backs.

Military sources earlier revealed that some of the skeletal remains belonged to Sernico Bagongon, Demo Alba, Junior Ademo, Junior Da-ao, Junior Mala, Wilson Sagahay and a certain Blas, Plas and Nelson.

"(They were) believed to be victims of summary executions by the communist terrorists. (There are probably) other shallow graves in the area," Capt. Ritche Pabilonia, spokesman of the Armed Forces Southern Command, said in a report.

Colina said diggings would continue in the area despite the natural obstacles and the continued attacks by NPA rebels who have so far killed one soldier.

He quoted intelligence reports as saying that NPA summary executions of suspected government infiltrators continue, with three more killed recently.

Military and police officials said evidence to be gathered by the forensic experts and the testimonies of witnesses will be used to file charges against CPP-NPA leaders, including Jose Ma. Sison.

"He (Sison) is answerable to the charges owing to the principle of command responsibility. The photos of these grave sites and the remains will prove beyond doubt the atrocities committed by the NPA rebels against their own," said Senior Superintendent Rolando de la Vega, community relations officer of the Region 10 police.

Until recently, Sitio Lantad was the logistics center of the CPP-NPA’s Front Committee 4B led by Vicente Libona.

The NPA unit has 60 armed guerrillas operating mainly in Balingasag, Lagonglong, Salay and Talisayan towns and Gingoog City.

The 8th IB flushed out the rebels from Lantad in September last year and restored full government functions there with the repair and rehabilitation of the Kibanban-Lantad Road by the provincial engineer’s office.