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Degamo burial declared non-working holiday in NegOr

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• GILBERT P. BAYORAN

Army chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. (left) visits 11th Infantry Battalion soldiers in Negros Oriental, a day before the scheduled burial of slain Gov. Roel Degamo.* PA photo

Malacañang yesterday declared March 16 as a special non-working day in Negros Oriental, to give its residents an opportunity to show their last respects and join the interment of Gov. Roel Degamo in the town of Siaton.

Degamo, who was assassinated on March 4 at his residence in Pamplona, Negros Oriental, will be laid to rest today, with full military honors, at his family mausoleum in Bonawon, Siaton.

Negros Oriental Gov. Carlo Jorge Juan “Guido” Reyes requested President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to declare March 16 as a special non-working holiday, to allow Negorenses to grieve and honor of Gov. Degamo and the eight others who also died in the armed attack at his residence, where an additional 17 people were injured.

On Wednesday, Vice President Sara Duterte visited the wake of Degamo in Siaton, and personally extended her sympathies to the wife of slain governor, Pamplona Mayor Janice Degamo.

Army chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. also paid his last respects yesterday to Gov. Degamo, following his visit to 11th Infantry Battalion headquarters in Negros Oriental.

On the other hand, the identity of one of the six suspects in the assassination of Degamo, who was killed in a gun battle in Bayawan City, several hours after the incident, was finally established by the authorities.

Maj. Cenon Pancito III, Joint Task Force Negros spokesperson, identified the slain suspect as Arnil Libradilla, a former New People’s Army rebel from Sitio Awang, Brgy. Atotes, Bindoy town, Negros Oriental.

Libradilla was killed during pursuit operations hours after the so-called Pamplona massacre that took the lives of Degamo and eight others.

Pancito said they believe that the four remaining suspects, including the leader of the assassins, reportedly a former soldier, have not yet left Negros Island.

Four other suspects were arrested in Bayawan City, while another was nabbed by operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Amlan, all in Negros Oriental. All of them are now in the custody of authorities.

Meanwhile, the Special Joint Task Force Negros, composed of military and police personnel, is now enhancing security operations, in preparations for the large number of people expected to attend Degamo’s burial.

The SJTFN has been tasked to provide security to residents and dismantle private armed groups.

The Apolinario Gatmaitan Command of the New People’s Army in Negros Island, also condemned the killing of Degamo.

In a statement, rebel spokesman Ka Maoche Legislador said “it was an act of violence that demonstrated the systemic culture of impunity in Negros cemented by then President Rodrigo Duterte in 2018, when he ordered the deployment of additional AFP troops to the island thru Memorandum Order 32.”

Legislador claimed that Duterte incited the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) to commit widespread violence and mount attacks against the people.

These state forces are the perpetrators of over a hundred extrajudicial killings especially of Negrosanon peasants and activists, he claimed.*

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