Friday, September 17, 2010

CamSur Man Shot Dead by NPA Bandits

CAMP ELIAS ANGELES, Pili, Camarines Sur – Accused as a criminal gang member, a man was shot to death by NPA rebels in CamSur, a military official said.

LtCol Ernesto Cruz, the Commander of the 42nd Infantry Battalion which has jurisdiction over Camarines Sur identified the victim as Sonny Nollasco, 27, a resident of Tambo village, Pamplona town.

Cruz said that five armed men approached the victim near his house and dragged to a swamp where he was shot with Cal .45 pistol at point-blank range at around 10:20am, yesterday.

“The victim was accused by the NPA as a member of the notorious hold-up gang in the area. He was shot to death in front of his scared relatives who witnessed the crime,” said Cruz.

LtCol Leoncio Cirunay, Commander of the 22nd Infantry Battalion also said that Nollasco was a former NPA rebel who asked for his help in going back to mainstream society.

“I was studying the possibility of letting him (Nollasco) join my CAFGU personnel. This is my own way of helping enlightened members of the bandit group to become peaceful citizens in our country,” said Cirunay.

Nollasco is the 35th victim of the bandit group’s policy of extra-judicial killing after the shooting of Rey Diolata, 24, in Gubat town in Sorsogon on September 10. Diolata was killed by NPA rebels in front of his wife and children.

In Albay, soldiers belonging to the 2nd Infantry Battalion led by LtCol John Oberio exhumed the remains of two people who were killed by the NPA rebels in Cabarian village, Ligao City at around 2:30pm on September 14.

A former rebel who is now helping the military in its campaign against the insurgents, pinpointed the exact location of the gravesite.

Oberio identified the victims as Manuel Harden, 46, and his brother Domingueto, 44, both members of the NPA bandit group. The victims were accused by their own comrades as military spies and were sentenced to death through the CPP-NPA-NDF’s ‘kangaroo court’.

On September 9, soldiers in Sorsogon also exhumed the remains of Julius Escudero, a militiaman who was abducted and killed by the NPA bandit group sometime in 2006.

Military authorities here believed that the discovery of the various ‘killing fields’ is an indication that the CPP-NPA-NDF has not renounced its policy of extra-judicial killings.

Major General Ruperto Pabustan, Commander of the 9th Infantry Division, has called on various human rights groups and local officials to denounce the dastardly acts by the NPA bandits.

“The continuous killing spree perpetrated by the NPA in 2010 is the indication that the bandit group remains as the main violators of the International Humanitarian Law. It is high time that local leaders and human rights groups take a stand to condemn these senseless killings,” said Pabustan.

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