ROMEO Baldevarona, head of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Negros Occidental, said more could have died in the massacre at Hacienda Nene in Barangay Bulanon, Sagay City if other members of the National Federation of Sugarcane Workers (NFSW) stayed at the campsite that tragic night on October 20.
Baldevarona said that based on their initial fact-finding at the site, there were about 30 farm workers who gathered at the makeshift tent but some members went home that night.
“The killing was treacherous and the perpetrators arrived and left the crime scene by foot. Based on the trajectory of the gunshots, the victims were unprepared and they were shot from about 75 meters by the perpetrators,” the CHR head said.
The CHR recommended to the families that the nine victims should be submitted to forensic test despite they have already signed a waiver for the autopsy.
Baldevarona said that based on their investigation, land conflict is the motive behind the massacre.
He said they will facilitate for the witnesses including the survivors be put under the witness protection program including the financial assistance for the families of the victims.
Meanwhile, Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, director of Police Regional Office (PRO)-Western Visayas, said among the three angles the police is looking into, the strongest angle is that the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) is the perpetrators.
He said the motive behind the rebels is to destabilize the Duterte administration and put the President in a bad light and that the rebels want to get the sympathy of the people.
The CPP, on the other hand, denounced the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte "for twisting facts and sowing disinformation."
In a statement published on its website, the communist group said private armies and paramilitary groups allegedly supported by the police and military have been behind the spate of killings against peasant leaders on Negros Island.
"The conjecture by police officials that the NPA committed the massacre to stir up the masses is garbage," the group stated.
"The NPA is a large peasant army that wages people’s war to advance their democratic demand for land reform. It will never put the peasant masses and people in harm's way," it added.
The CPP said "revolutionary authorities in Negros" were investigating the massacre.
"A special people’s court can be convened soonest in order to try the criminals behind the massacre and heed the cry for justice of the peasants and farm workers," it added. (with reports from SunStar Philippines)