PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is expected to arrive in Sagay City today to visit the wake of the nine slain sugar workers.
Sagay City Mayor Alfredo Marañon III confirmed that the advance party of the President, the Presidential Management Staff, arrived on Monday, October 22, in the city.
Marañon said Duterte is expected to arrive in the city at about 11 a.m.
Duterte will visit the camp of the 79th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army in Barangay Bato. He will then proceed to FDN Funeral Parlor where the nine victims lie in state until this time.
Marañon said preparations for the President's arrival have been ongoing as of Monday evening.
Former Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence Go also confirmed Duterte's scheduled visit in a text message sent to reporters in Manila on Monday.
On Saturday, the nine farmers, including four women and two minors, were brutally killed by unidentified armed men after they camped out at Hacienda Nene on that day.
READ: Gunmen kill 9 people who occupied Negros farm
The victims were resting in their makeshift tent when they were attacked by the suspects.
They were members of the National Federation of Sugarcane Workers (NFSW).
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 all of Barangay Plaridel; Jomarie Ughayon, Jr., 16 and Marchtel Sumicad, 17, both residents of Barangay Bulanon.
Marañon said that as of this time, the identities of the suspects, per the police report, could not be revealed.
The Malacañang condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the brutal killing of the nine farm workers.
In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said: the Palace is deeply perturbed to learn about the incident and the Philippine National Police (PNP) has already been ordered to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation on this dastardly act.
He assured the victims’ families of this “extremely cruel act” the government will “enforce the full wrath of the law against its perpetrators.”
Meanwhile, Abang Lingkod party-list Representative Stephen Paduano said he and Third District Representative Alfredo Benitez are planning to seek a congressional investigation on the incident.
Paduano said that he strongly condemned the killing of the farm workers and that he pledged to be active in the investigation to give justice to the victims.
Paduano also asks government agencies, groups or individuals to stop making conclusions that muddle the police investigation into the killing.
"They should stop from issuing irresponsible and sweeping conclusions until such a time that the official investigation comes out," Paduano said, citing the statement of an official of the Department of Agrarian Reform, who claimed that the members of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA) as the perpetrators of the massacre.
DAR Undersecretary David Erro, in media interviews, described RPA as a splinter group of the New People's Army.