BACOLOD CITY -- A former member of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA) was gunned down by members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, the military said on Wednesday.
In its report, the Philippine Army’s 303rd Infantry Brigade identified the victim as Jonybert “Jun-Jun” Sabeco, 40, of Sitio Cara-an, Barangay Tampalon.
Sabeco, a father of six, was shot by four communist rebels while on his way home on board a motorcycle in Purok Letter, Barangay Camansi around 7 a.m. on Tuesday after he brought his eldest child to school. The gunmen also took his wallet.
Sabeco was the second victim of CPP-NPA atrocities in Kabankalan City in three weeks after the killing of Cornelio Morales, a village watchman of Sitio Camandag, Barangay Carol-an, who was shot dead by communist rebels on January 29.
In a statement, Col. Benedict Arevalo, commander of the 303rd Infantry Brigade, said in killing Sabeco, the CPP-NPA clearly violated the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).
“We will use their admission of the killing to document for the higher headquarters a report to the European Union to further confirm that the EU is correct in naming the CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization,” Arevalo said.
The CPP-NPA has been tagged a terrorist group both by the United States and the European Union.
On Tuesday night, the NPA posted on a social media that one of its units in Southwest Negros punished Sabico, whom they claimed was an active member of the RPA and a military intelligence asset.
The RPA is a former breakaway group of the CPP-NPA. The Tabara-Paduano Group of the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa ng Pilipinas/Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPM-P/RPA-ABB) has an ongoing peace talks with the government.
Arevalo said the CPP-NPA’s latest violent act and the previous incidents in Kabankalan are clear proofs that they are indeed terrorists and do not respect human rights.
he added.“I once again challenge the Kaparatan, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, and the rest of the militant leftist organizations to condemn such terroristic acts if they are not bogus human right advocates. They had been very silent about the human rights violations of the NPA,”
Lt. Col. Patricio Tomales, commander officer of 15th Infantry Battalion based in the neighboring Cauayan town, said in a separate statement that the CPP-NPA destroyed the family and the future of Sabeco’s young children.
He also assailed the leftist groups for their silence on the NPA atrocities in Kabankalan, describing the groups as bogus human rights advocates.
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