PNP probes 2 massacre survivors; incident ‘scripted’

SAGAY CITY -- President Rodrigo Duterte called off his visit to the wake of the nine slain farmers here Tuesday, October 23 due to bad weather.

Duterte was supposed to arrive at the Sagay City Government Center, where the bodies of the victims lie in state, Tuesday morning but went to Naga City first.

He arrived at the airport in the evening but opted to cancel his trip to Sagay City.

Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones, who was at the Sagay government center, said the President was “about to come, unfortunately, there were heavy rains in the airport in Bacolod.”

“He was not able to push through because it would be risky for him to proceed. Besides it’s already nighttime,” he added.

Castriciones said the President intends to come back but they are not certain with the date.

“To show his sympathy and his concern to the relatives of the victims, he gave something that would console them -- financial assistance and a cellphone,” he said, adding “they would be able to remember that the President was really very sympathetic with regards to what happened to their relative.”

Probe

Initial police investigation said the killing of the nine farmers point to the alleged involvement of the two survivors who police said were recruiters of the victims

to become members of the National Federation of Sugarcane Workers (NFSW).

Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, director of Police Regional Office (PRO)-Western Visayas, said investigators already has a witness who can identify that there were five persons involved in the shooting.

"According to the investigators, we have identified the suspect and we also have available witness to give us credible statement against the suspect. The witness knows the suspect(s) personally because he lives there. He can tell exactly what happened. This is a land grabbing issue where the suspect may have an interest in the property," he said.

He said they are looking at three angles in the incident.

“One, this might be perpetrated by the owner of the property using maybe hired goons. Second, this is done by the donees who are legitimate claimants of the properties or it might be they were also involved, and thirdly, this might be perpetrated by the New People's Army (NPA) in their desire to discredit the government, military and PNP (Philippine National Police),” he said.

Site visit

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff General Carlito Galvez, along with Bulalacao and several others, went to Hacienda Nene to see for themselves the area where the nine farmers were brutally killed.

Galvez said that some quarters have insinuated that the military was behind the alleged red-tagging.

He named former Bayan Muna party-list representative Neri Colmenares for apparently making a sweeping statement against the military and the administration of President Duterte to be responsible for this killing.

"He made a very irresponsible sweeping statement,” he added.

According to the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco), dragging the military on the killings would be very improbable because this is a case of land grabbing.

”This is a manipulation and deception. Those who were killed were indeed victims here,” he added.

"But we promised the families concerned to just trust the AFP and the PNP because we will give justice to this incident. All the agencies concerned will deliver a conclusive investigation on the matter," he said.

Galvez added that all these were part of the big plan of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) to impute and discredit the government not only nationally but internationally. This is a sinister plot of the CPP-NPA to impute a negative image to the President and malign the reputation of the AFP.

Scripted?

Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. said the Provincial Government, as well as the local government of Sagay City, will assist the victims’ families by giving them land where they can plant and scholarships to the children of the victims.

"The nine families will be transferred to a resettlement area where they can have their homes, land, livelihood, and scholarship for their children. A land which will be significant enough to plant and grow high-value crops like vegetables," he said.

The victims will be buried on Sunday on separate areas.

Their safety will be taken care of by the police, he said.

The governor said that what happened to the nine farmers were "scripted."

The NFSW knows it or maybe there were even responsible for it, the governor claimed.

Moreover, DSWD-Western Visayas director Rebecca Geamala said the families of the victims will undergo a psychosocial intervention.

"We will ensure this assistance so that we can ensure their resilience to recover from this tragedy. They already had a stress debriefing. Each family will be taken care well until they finally recovered from this," she said.