BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The “terror campaign” of the New People’s Army continues in northern Negros, after the killing of a barangay captain yesterday in Brgy. Lalong, Calatrava, Negros Occidental.
Lt Col. J-Jay Javines, 79th Infantry Battalion commander, yesterday said that about seven armed rebels led by Arnel Tapang, went to the house of Lalong barangay chairman Benjamen Javoc, early yesterday morning.
When he responded to their call to come out, Javines said that Javoc was immediately shot and killed by the armed men.
He added that the armed men, who are remnants of the dismantled Northern Negros Front, ransacked his residence and took P20,000 in cash and other valuables.
Javines said that Javoc was the third victim of execution by the group of Tapang in the hinterland barangays of Minapasok, Marcelo and Lalong, all in Calatrava, since last month.
Police records showed that Javoc is the second barangay chairman killed in Negros Occidental, following the death of barangay Danilo Dautil of Cabcab, in Isabela town on August 25.
The killing of Dautil was also being looked into by the Philippine Army as insurgency-related.
Javines said the group of Tapang is operating in the hinterlands of Toboso and Calatrava, terrorizing the people to discourage them from supporting the Philippine Army.
PBrig. Gen. Leo Francisco, newly-designated regional police director of Western Visayas, in his visit to Camp Alfredo Montelibano Sr. in Bacolod City yesterday, ordered the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office to investigate thoroughly the series of killings of two barangay captains in Calatrava and Isabela towns.*
