Tribesmen charge NPA for killing 2 IPs in Bukidnon

From the Philippine News Agency (Sep 15): Tribesmen charge NPA for killing 2 IPs in Bukidnon

Village residents in the hinterlands of Bukidnon accused the New People’s Army (NPA) rebels of killing members of the Indigenous People (IP) who refused to join the rebel movement, the military said Tuesday.

Capt. Patrick Martinez, spokesperson of the army’s 4th Infantry Division here, said Reymond Dayo Licanay, 21 and younger brother Roy, 18, both members of the Tala-andig tribe were reportedly killed by NPA rebels last Sunday.

The police investigators in Valencia City said that the victims were residents of the mountain village of Tandakol in Lilingayon, Valencia City, Bukidnon, who were hunting wild games for food when allegedly shot by the NPA rebels.

Datu Uba Lucbay Bayawon, the uncle of the victims, said that he suspected the NPAs as responsible for the killing of his nephews because of their refusal to join the rebel movement.

“The NPA have been recruiting us, especially these victims, for quite a time now. But we refused because we do not want to take up arms and fight the government. We only wanted to live peacefully in our ancestral land. This is the reason why the NPA rebels are furious about us because we do not want to support their armed struggle. The rebels even threatened to kill us,” Bayawon told the police.

Martinez said that the relatives accompanied by the police recovered the victim’s bodies who appeared to have been tortured around 5:00 p.m. Sunday in the forested area of Lilingayen with empty shells of AK-47 and M14 ammunitions beside their bodies.

He said that army Lt. Col. Nasser Lidasan, Commanding Officer of the 1st Special Forces Battalion, has sent troops to support the PNP on the conduct of Law Enforcement operation in the area.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=804168