NPA Attacks Forensics Team Probing Summary Executions In South RP

Troops find skeletal remains in Misamis Oriental province, a stronghold of the Maoist New People's Army rebels. (Mike Banos)

MISAMIS ORIENTAL (Mike Banos / 16 Jul) Communist insurgents ambushed a vehicle of government troopers securing the road to the site of some shallow graves where remains of victims of alleged summary executions were to be identified by a forensics team from Manila.

Major Samuel Sagun, public affairs officer of the Philippine Army's 4th Infantry Division, said communist guerrillas from the Front Committee 4B, North Central Mindanao Regional Committee of the CPP-NPA ambushed a mini-cruiser of the Charlie Company, 8th Infantry Battalion coming from the hamlet called Dansuli in the village of San Juan at about 10:30 a.m. as it was on its way to the neighboring village of Samay.

The three soldiers onboard were unhurt and managed to shoot their way through the gauntlet but two civilian teen agers from Sitio Lantad, Barangay Kibanban who were hitching a ride aboard the mini cruiser were wounded by the five man ambush team.

Sagun said Gaspar Tandayan, 16, suffered two gunshot wounds in the back and one in the leg, while Ridzmar Karay, 15, was wounded in his right foot. The two were initially brought to the Northern Mindanao Medical Center, some 60 kms from the ambush site, but were trabsfered at the Camp Evangelista Station Hospital. They were pronounced out of danger.

Col. Andrelino Colina, 8th IB commanding officer, said additional troops were immediately dispatched to the area and are now conducting hot pursuit operations against the ambushers who fled towards the Cabulig river.

"Part ito ng plan nila to step up tactical offensives dahil malaki ang losses nila sa area," said 1Lt. Edgardo Taloroc, 8th IB operations officer. "Desperate sila maka score against us kaya wala silang pakialam madamay mga civilians. Mga bata pa, binanatan pa din nila ang military vehicle namin kahit na may mga civilians."

Forensics experts from Manila who had scheduled an onsite investigation last Saturday of the remains of alleged victims of summary executions unearthed by troopers from the 8 th IB from a series of shallow graves last July 7, 2006 have moved their onsite investigations to a later date.

"Buti na lang nag chopper sila otherwise nadamay din sila," Sagun said.

Military officials already learned of the presence of the human remains alleged to be victims of NPA summary executions from Lantad residents as early as June 7 this year. Colina said Lantad residents personally witnessed some of the executions, which were part of the NPA's "Operation Ajos" to rid its ranks of suspected government infiltrators.

Residents recounted how some of the victims were forced to march from as far as Mat-i, Claveria to the execution sites, their faces covered with jute sacks and their arms and wrists bound behind them .

Military sources earlier revealed the names/aliasas of some of the skeletal remains exhumed in Bantex, Lantad in the village of Kibanban in Balingasag town Sernico Bagongon; Demo Alba; Junior Ademo; Junior Da-ao; Junior Mala; Wilson Sagahay and three others identified only as Blas, Plas and Nelson. One of the remains is still unidentified to date.

"The skeletal remains are believed to be victims of summary executions by the communist terrorists. It is believed that other shallow graves are still at the area," Southern Command Spokesman Captain Ritche Pabilonia said in a report.

Taloroc said they would be looking for the exact site of 11 other alleged victims of summary executions by the NPA, some believed buried under the other graves they earlier unearthed.

Colina said the diggings will continue despite the natural obstacles and the continued harassment by the NPA which has kept sniping at the area, killing one of his soldiers securing the area. He said intelligence reports indicate summary executions of NPA members suspected of being government infiltrators have continued, with three victims executed in the latest incident.

Military and police officials said evidence gathered by the forensics team and testimonies of eyewitnesses will be used to file charges against CPP-NPA leaders including Jose Maria Sison. Colina said "they are heading in that direction," while PNP PRO-X Community Relations Officer Col. Rolando de la Vega said.

"He (Sison) is answerable to the charges owing to the principle of command responsibility. The photos of these grave sites and physical evidence of the remains will prove beyond doubt the atrocities committed by the NPA rebels against their own," he added.

Until recently, Lantad was the logistic center of the Front Committee 4B, North Central Mindanao regional committee of the New People's Army. Colina said the unit under Vicente Libona has some 60 armed guerrillas who are operating mainly in Balingasag, Lagonglong and Salay up to Talisayan and Gingoog City in Misamis Oriental.

It was only as late as the 2nd week of September, 2005 that the 8IB flushed the insurgents from Lantad and restored full government functions with the repair and rehabilitation of the Kibanban-Lantad road by the Misamis Oriental Provincial Engineer's Office.