BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Four civilians were shot dead by New People’s Army rebels in Brgy. Trinidad, Guihulngan City in Negros Oriental yesterday, Col. Inocencio Pasaporte, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, said.
Pasaporte identified the victims as Ronilo Quirante, 56, of Sitio Agit, Roger Fat, of legal age, and a resident of Sitio Panagtugas, and Rodrigo Lubay, 46, and his wife, Cerelina, 45, both of Sitio Lower Budlasan, all in Brgy. Trinidad, Guihulngan City.
He said the four were killed in their homes at about 6 a.m. yesterday by suspects armed with high-powered firearms.
Mayor Carlo Jorge Joan “Guido” Reyes, chairman of the Guihungan City Task Force–Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict, issued a statement strongly condemning the killing of the four civilians, whom he said were suspected to be military informants.
The shooting came more than a month after 10 NPA rebels died in an encounter with troopers of the 62nd Infantry Battalion in the area. Soldiers recovered several high-powered firearms, including an M60 machine gun, after the clash.
Reyes called on his constituents and government agencies to unite against “these atrocities”. “Let us work together so that these people can never sow terror in any single sitio, in any of our 33 barangays of Guihulngan,” Reyes said.*
