NPA rebels execute 3 men in Pagadian City

From the Mindanao Examiner (Mar 9): NPA rebels execute 3 men in Pagadian City

Suspected New People’s Army rebels executed men accused of murdering 4 people in Pagadian City in the southern Filipino province of Zamboanga del Sur, police said Thursday.

Police said the men – Alipio Andus, 39; Ariston Paroc, 46; and Julieto Candao, 28 – were killed in the village of Dampalan. Paroc’s wife, Merlin, who was with the group, had been spared by the attackers.

“Police investigators recovered forty 40 empty shells of caliber 5.56 mm (M16 automatic rifles) and a piece of yellow paper with a handwritten message accusing the victims of killing six people,” said Senior Superintendent Rogelio Alabata, a regional police spokesman.

The accusations cannot be independently confirmed, but the note said the trio was meted the death penalty after a kangaroo court found them guilty of allegedly murdering four people and land grabbing.

Just on Wednesday, communist rebels also killed four policemen in an ambush in the southern province of Davao del Sur. The daring attack occurred in the village of Sibayan in Bansalan town.

The team of policemen were heading to the village to respond to a shooting incident when rebels attacked them.

There was no immediate statement from President Rodrigo Duterte or to any members of the government panel who were holding backchannel talks with the rebels for the resumption of the peace negotiations.

Duterte suspended the peace talks last month after rebels launched a series of deadly attacks in the restive region following government’s failure to release some 400 political detainees – mostly NPA leaders and members arrested and captured in the past by authorities – a promise made by the President during election campaign last year.

The rebels have been fighting for many decades now for the establishment of a communist state in the country.

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