All were shot in the head

From the Visayan Daily Star (Jan 28): All were shot in the head

Even the eight civilians were not spared the barbarity of the suspects in the ambush on the truckload of fiesta-goers, who were on their way home early Sunday morning in La Castellana, Negros Occidental. All the victims, including a policeman, had gunshot wounds in the head, Senior Supt. Celestino Guara, caretaker of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, said.

This indicated that the ambushers said to be New People’s Army members, had made sure they were dead, by shooting them in the head, before fleeing, Guara added.

Romeo Baldevarona, provincial chief of the Commission on Human Rights, said they will investigate the incident.

Two policemen and 10 civilians were injured in the ambush, police records show. Two assault rifles of the slain and injured policemen were reportedly taken by the suspects, who are now being pursued by government troopers.

What happened in La Castellana was reminiscent of the ambush of civilians by communist rebels in Brgy. Salamanca, Toboso, several years ago, where four were killed, military records show.

On Saturday, the slain policeman identified as RO1 Richard Canja and two injured colleagues, PO3 Constantino Villegas and PO2 Jeffrey Alvarez, with auxiliary policemen and barangay tanods, had been requested to help maintain peace and order at the fiesta of Brgy. Puso, in La Castellana.

On their way home, several civilians, including eight children, also boarded the six-wheeler Fuzo Canter truck, that was bound for the La Castellana poblacion.

Senior Inspector Gary Alan Resuma, La Castellana police chief, said they had accounted for 21 passengers of the truck, aside from the minors, as of last night.

Edwin Sevilla, a member of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team, who survived the ambush, said in a radio interview, that they were ordered by the armed men to alight from the vehicle.

Sevilla said he and the other survivors helped transport the injured victims through motorcycles.

Empty shells of .45 caliber pistol were reportedly recovered near the bodies of the victims.

Police probers have yet to determine the motive for the barbaric killing of the eight civilians and a police officer.

Guara said Canja had received death threats over a land dispute, and his adversaries may have enlisted the help of communist guerrillas to go after him.

Local government officials, police and military authorities in Negros strongly condemned the ambush, where even civilians were not spared by the NPA.

http://www.visayandailystar.com/2013/January/28/topstory2.htm