Rebels tagged to deaths of two more ‘military assets’

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – The Army’s 303rd Infantry Brigade (IBde) condemned the series of killings of civilians allegedly perpetrated by the New People’s Army (NPA) recently in Negros island.

The latest incident was reported in Negros Oriental on April 18, killing two persons at Sitio Cambairan, Barangay Trinidad, Guihulngan City.

Police identified the victims as Juven Pasinabo, 24, of Barangay Trinidad, and Jinny Boy Tubias, 29, of Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental.

Based on a police report, Pasinabo was attending a fiesta when two of the four unidentified armed persons approached him and shot him to death.

The perpetrators then introduced themselves as NPA rebels and told everyone to drop to the ground.

But instead of following, Tubias, who witnessed the incident, tried to talk to the gunmen and told them who Pasinabo was.

The two other perpetrators then took Tubias to the dark area and shot him to death, according to the police.

Police recovered from the crime scene two fired bullets of .45 caliber ammunition, while other pieces of evidence such as a steel magazine of a .45 caliber pistol loaded with four live ammunition and 22 fired bullets of the said firearm were turned over by the barangay officials to the police.

Police tapped the Army’s 62nd Infantry Battalion (IB) to thoroughly probe the incident, while the recovered pieces of evidence were turned over to the Provincial Forensic Unit for examination.

In a statement released on April 19, the Leonardo Panaligan Command (LPC)-NPA, claimed this incident again identifying the two victims as alleged intelligence assets of the government forces.

The rebel group alleged that the two victims were threatening some residents and urging them to surrender to the authorities.

The group said that this is their response to the military operations in central Negros.

Meanwhile, 1Lt. Raymart Africa, acting civil military operations officer of 303rd IBde, said that they have deployed military troopers to conduct security patrol and operations in the areas affected to prevent the same from happening.

A total of 10 insurgency-related incidents have been reported from Jan. 14 to April 18, 2023, victimizing 11 individuals.

Of the 10, nine incidents were claimed by LPC-NPA, while the other one was claimed by the Armando Sumayang Jr. Command of NPA.

 

Of the number, four incidents happened in the towns of Moises Padilla, one in La Castellana, and another in Ilog, all in Negros Occidental, while one incident each happened in Vallehermoso town and Canlaon City, and two incidents in Guihulngan City in Negros Oriental.