Duterte to visit wake of 9 Sagay massacre victims

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte will visit on Tuesday, October 23, the wake of nine sugar workers slain by unidentified assailants in a plantation in Sagay City, Negros Occidental.

Former Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence Go confirmed Duterte's scheduled visit in a text message sent to reporters on Monday, October 22.

Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, Philippine National Police regional director for the Western Visayas, floated the possibility that the New People's Army (NPA), an armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), was behind the mass murder.

Bulalacao also said they were looking at other possible perpetrators: Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) militiamen, or goons hired by the owner of the land which the victims were trying to occupy, or Hacienda Nene farmers who already have in their possession the deed of donation from the owner.

The fatalities were members of the militant farmers' organization National Federation of Sugar Workers who occupied an idle portion of Hacienda Nene in Bulanon village under "Bungkalan" campaign.

Under the campaign, militant farmers occupy and till idle lands covered by the agrarian reform program but have not been distributed yet.

PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde, for his part, threw the blame at the communist insurgents.

He said the communists are involved in "Oplan Bungkalan at Okupasyon," which he described as a "grand design to occupy private and government properties using their mass base and to create an untoward incident then blame it on the government." Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo did not discount the possibility that the communists wanted to pin the blame on the government.

"'Yung federation ng farmers kung saan miyembro 'yung mga taong ito, eh lumalabas na legal front ng CPP-NPA. At 'yung mga pinatay ay bagong recruit pa lang daw 'yun the day before pinatay sila. Ang nakakapagtaka doon, kung ito ay legal front ng CPP-NPA at mga recruit nila 'yung pinatay, bakit nila ginawa 'yun?" he said in a radio interview.

(The fatalities were members of a farmers' federation that is a legal front of the CPP-NPA. And the slain individuals were reportedly recruited just the day before they had been killed. What's surprising is why did they kill them if the new recruits are from the legal front of the CPP-NPA?)

"Parang lumalabas, pinatay nila ang mga sarili nilang recruit, 'di ba? Oo, parang [gusto nilang masisi ang gobyerno]. Basta ang alam natin, parang something is wrong with that," he added.

(Why did they have to kill their new recruits? Yes, it seems like [they want the government to be blamed]. What we know is something is wrong with that.)

Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. has put up a bounty of P250,000 for information leading to the arrest of the people behind the killings of the sugar workers.

Sagay City Mayor Alfredo Marañon III, the governor's son, also offered another P250,000 reward for the arrest of the suspect in the massacre. (SunStar Philippines)

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