• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A couple and their two children, both minors, were killed Wednesday night, in what was described as a massacre in rebel infested Sitio Kangkiling, Brgy. Buenavista, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental.
The victims were identified by the police as couple Rolly Fausto, 50, and his wife, Imelda, 49, and their two male minor children, aged 15 and 11 years old, whose identities were withheld.
The cadaver of Rolly was discovered in a cornfield located about 50 meters away from his residence, while the bodies of his wife and two children were found inside and outside of their house, respectively, initial police investigations showed.
All the victims reportedly succumbed to multiple gunshot injuries.
Emily Germino, a daughter of the Fausto couple who was not at their residence when the incident took place, reported the incident to the Himalayan City police.
The scene of incident, which is not accessible to four wheeled vehicles, due to an impassable road, is about 20 kilometers away from the Himamaylan City proper.
Buenavista barangay chairman Harry Higgins reported that the victims, whose livelihood mostly depended on farming, were from Basay, Negros Oriental, who transferred residence to the sitio.
The Philippine Army and the police have yet to establish the suspects behind the massacre, although Higgins acknowledged the existence of two forms of government in the hinterland sitios of the barangay, where numerous encounters have ensued between government forces and New People’s Army rebels.
Higgins told DYHB RMN that they thought there was encounter shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday, because of gunshots they heard.
The motive behind the massacre and the suspects are still being established by authorities, who initially recovered three spent 5.56 mm shells from the scene of incident.
On the same night, a group of unidentified armed men torched two heavy equipment in Sitio Bulod, Brgy. Carabalan, also in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental.
Engr. Kenneth Gensulin, owner of the two backhoes, told the police that the heavy equipment is being used in the construction of a P100 million road which will connect Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental, to Tayasan in Negros Oriental.
The twin incidents took place as the two slain New People’s Army rebels were claimed by their respective families yesterday, according to 1Lt. Mary Liza Joy de Guzman, 62nd Infantry Battalion Civil Military Operations officer.
The two slain rebels identified as Benjie Ebarle, alias Omar, and Roweno Fermiza Anobong, both members of the Central Negros 1 under the Komiteng Rehiyonal Negros/Cebu/Bohol/Siquijor.
Both were killed during an encounter with 62IB soldiers on June 13 in Brgy. Macagahay, Moises Padilla, Negros Occidental.*
