Tuesday, November 18, 2008 Ex-rebel reveals NPA killing fields By Ernie N. Olson Jr.
THE pulverized skeletal remains of at least three former New People's Army (NPA) cadres were unearthed in the hinterlands of Aurora, Pudtol, Apayao on November 6.
According to Army Major Rosendo Armas, acting information officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Northern Luzon Command, a composite government team discovered the NPA mass grave, of those believed to have been "purged" by their colleagues, with the help of a former rebel around 2 p.m. that same day.
"The site used to be the main encampment of the notorious, but now defunct, First National Battalion of the NPA," he explained.
The former rebel, who used to be a member of an NPA unit which operated within Cagayan-Apayao-Ilocos Norte (Cain) as well as the Zinundungan–Marag-Paco Valley complex, led joint elements of the 17th Infantry Battalion, the 501st Infantry Brigade, the 51MICO, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, the Apayao Provincial Police Office together with a Scene-Of-the-Crime Operations (Soco) team of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Crime Laboratory and members of the media to the victims' gravesite.
According to him, the remains of those unearthed were believed to be a certain Ka Rumol, a logging truck driver turned NPA guerilla from Magapit, Lallo, Cagayan; Ka Raymund and Ka Kaloy, all members of the Cagayan Party Committee and victims of "purging" or the cleansing of NPA ranks, which ran from the 1980s to 1990s.
During that time, NPA members or even leaders suspected of being deep penetration agents (DPAs) and innocent civilians perceived to be government informers were subjected to torture and summary execution by their own colleagues.
The exhumed skeletal remains were placed under the custody of the Soco team under Plamer Magsumbol.
"Clothes for men, women and children, a knife and other personal belongings were also found at the site, giving rise to speculations more than three were dumped at the gravesite," Armas added.
