POLICE investigators who handle the murder case of the nine members of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) who were massacred at Barangay Bulanon in Sagay City, Negros Occidental on October 20 questioned the “malicious disappearance” of their recruiters.
The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo), in a press release sent to the media on Monday, October 22, said that prior to the incident, there was a person who identified himself as leader or recruiter of a cause-oriented group
According to the families, the victims were only recruited on that day and proceeded to the said area to take over and cultivate the land even acknowledging that they were not yet land reform beneficiaries, said Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Castil Jr., provincial police director.
The said person told the victims that he will be out for a while but the shooting incident coincidentally happened after he left the area.
“What was the relation of the recruiter to the suspects? Who is the interested party behind the senseless shooting?” he asked.
Castil said the police considered all angles and possibilities to establish the real motive of the shooting incident.
He also said that the police are not discounting the intervention and involvement of the Communist Party of the Philippines–New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) and other leftist groups in order to draw attention and sympathy of the people.
The victims possibly were a sacrificial lamb for another infamous but popular uprising against the administration for the revolutionary movement to rise with fame gaining more recruits from disgruntled and aggrieved farmers living in that area, he added.
The police provincial office is also considering the conflict between the landowner’s selected beneficiaries and the NFSW farmers claiming the same portion of the land.
“Instead the land distribution will pass through CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program), the owner donated the land to selected beneficiaries,” he said.
He said another angle the police are looking is the conflict between the landowner’s selected beneficiaries and the NFSW farmers claiming the same portion of the land.
“Instead the land distribution will pass through CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program), the owner donated the land to selected beneficiaries,” he said.
On the evening of October 20, not less than 10 unidentified armed men with high-powered firearms fired at the victims, who were resting at their makeshift shelter at Hacienda Nene.
They were “selectively shot” by the suspects, said Castil.
Nine of the victims died on the spot while two others escaped the attack.
Killed were Eglicerio Villegas, 36 and his common-law wife Angelipe Arsenal, 47; Paterno Baron, 48; Rene Laurencio, 53 Marcelina Dumaguit, 56; Rommel Bantigue; Morena Mendoza; Jomarie Ughayon Jr., 16; and Marchtel Sumicad, 17.
One of the survivors was able to take cover at the pile of rice sacks inside the tent but suspects ran after him when he was sighted running to the nearby houses.
For his part, Rogelio Arquillo, one of the alleged recruiters and survivor, vehemently denied the allegations of the police.
Arquillo, in a media interview at the Negros Press Club (NPC) office in Bacolod City yesterday, clarified that there was no recruitment or set-up.
He said they all went together to the tent but it just happened that he needed to leave the area to charge his cellular phone, which is why he survived the attack.
Rene Manlangit, who is also an alleged recruiter, accompanied him and survived the attack as well.
“Indi puwede na mag recruit kami kay member man lang kami. Nag meeting kami tanan na madungan kadto didto (It is not possible that we’re the ones recruiting because we’re just also a member and we all agreed in a meeting to go there together that day),” Arquillo said.
He also said that it is impossible to consider the incident a “set-up” because they would not initiate the killing of their family and relatives.
“I was even blamed by my relative because I was not able to secure my nephew,” he said.
Despite the allegations of the police, Arquillo said he is still willing to coordinate with the police in the investigation.
In fact, he and Manlangit were even invited for questioning at the Sagay City Police Station, a day after the incident happened. (GYM)